Witness testifies that Menna was absent from work due to medical reasons the whole year

The Federal High Court heard seven defence witnesses in the Askallukan Trading Plc criminal suit, involving Menna Terefe, the first defendant and general manager of the company, and three others, before adjourning the case for verdict pronouncing to October 19, 2010.

A criminal charge for fraud and undertaking an activity without a licence was instituted by federal prosecutors on July 29, 2010, against the company, Menna, and three employees: Girma Bekele, the company's accountant; Dereje Bayu, an employee in the Finance and Administration Department; and Birhanu Lenchamo, a promoter.

The defendants are accused of collecting a little over 45 million Br from more than 1,200 people during a promotional campaign. The company ran this campaign from November 2009 to May 2010, for a trip to the FIFA World Cup charging 37,582.65 Br per person, which did not materialise for most.

No charges were instituted against Girmay Gebremichael, the managing director of the company, as he was not apprehended.

Menna appeared before the Second Criminal BPR Bench of the Federal High Court on Thursday, September 2, 2010, with her eight-day old baby, after failing to appear in court due to medical reasons on three previous occasions, where the hearing was adjourned.

The defendants, represented by two lawyers, presented seven witnesses to defend the charges instituted against them.

The first witness, a businessman, travelled to South Africa for the World Cup after hearing about the promotion on television and radio, he said. He bought six tickets from the company, paying a total of 7,000 dollars at Wegagen Bank, Mesalemia Branch, he claimed.

"When I arrived in South Africa, nobody from the company was there to meet me at first," he said. "After I made a phone call to the company here, they arranged two individuals who took me to a guest house. I was told I can only stay there for five days but I checked out after two days to be with my friends who live there, at my expense."

The second witness, Girmay's sister-in-law, testified that Menna stayed at home without reporting to work the whole year due to several complications related to her pregnancy.

"Menna was first pregnant in 2008, but she had a miscarriage," she testified. "She got pregnant again in 2009, but her child passed away shortly after birth due to breathing difficulties. Six months later, she became pregnant with her new baby; for these reasons she was not going to work."

Under cross examination, the witness was challenged as to how she could be certain of the whereabouts of the first defendant while engaged in work of her own, to which she explained the close family ties she has with the defendant.

The prosecutor asked the witness whether the defendant was experiencing pain throughout the year or whether it was intermittently, to which she answered that it was occasionally.

The third witness, a cameraman and neighbour of the first defendant, testified the same as the second witness. The fourth witness, a postman of the company, was called to testify on behalf of all the defendants.

The defendants were mere employees and, apart from taking orders from Girmay, they were not directly involved in organising the event, he said. He had never seen Menna at her workplace, he claimed. The fifth and sixth witnesses, a brother and cousin of Berhanu, respectively, were called in to testify for the fourth defendant.

Berhanu only worked as an event coordinator for an orientation event that was held in Hawassa's Pinna Hotel, the witnesses testified.

"My cousin and I paid 75,000 Br for the hospitality package but we did not even get inside the South African Embassy because we saw a commotion at the gate and met people who claimed to have had their visas cancelled," the sixth witness, who claimed to have bought the hospitality package from the company, said. "I, myself, instituted a civil suit against the company to reclaim my money."

The fifth witness, a prosecutor himself, agreed to be the guarantor of his brother, who signed an agency contract with the company to coordinate promotional work in Hawassa for one month, he claimed.

"Before agreeing to be the guarantor, I examined the memorandum of association of the company and I found that it is permitted to engage in import and export business as well as foreign trade assistance work," said the fifth witness. "I also saw a letter of support written to the company from the Ethiopian Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa. I thought that the company was licensed to engage in this activity."

Only Girmay made a speech during the orientation event held in Hawassa, which was at the Pinna Hotel, not the Sidama Hall, as stated on the prosecutor's charge, the seventh witness, a resident of Hawassa, testified.

"Only 32 people came for the orientation and even the guests of honour failed to show up," he said. "Disappointed with this, Girmay left the town immediately after that." The judge gave both the prosecutor and the defence lawyers an opportunity to make closing statements.

"None of the witnesses that were presented today denied the fact that 1,200 people were victims of a fraud," the prosecutor said. "All of the defendants willingly participated in the crime and they should be found guilty as charged."

However, the prosecutor had not proved that there was intent on the part of the defendants to defraud the people, the defence argued. The first defendant was not involved in the activities of the company as she was not at her post and the other defendants were mere employees, she said.

"The company had spent close to 20 million Br on ticket and hotel reservations," said the lawyer. "The complainants were not able to go because they failed to meet embassy criterion."

The second charge should also be dropped because the company was licensed to do this and is an agent of Match Hospitality in the Horn of Africa, the defence lawyer argued.

The court adjourned the pronouncing of the verdict to October 19, after accepting a thick file of documentary evidence from the defence team, who was also granted additional time to present evidence which would arrive from South Africa.

The four defendants, including Menna, who was covering her face and baby, were escorted out of the courtroom by prison officers, to be taken to the Addis Abeba Prison Centre.

The civil suit involving a total of 282 plaintiffs was settled two weeks ago, the court ordering Askallukan Trading Plc, Menna, and Girmay to pay nearly 10.6 million Br. While other civil suits are still pending at the Eighth and Ninth Civil benches of the Federal High Court, the plaintiffs who received rulings have already instituted execution proceedings.