ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced that the ongoing crackdown on corruption and human rights abuse will continue by bringing perpetrators to justice.
Ahmed's remarks came Thursday amid an ongoing arrest of senior military figures, high-level intelligence personnel and their associates over alleged large-scale corruption cases and years of human rights abuse against dissidents and rebels.
"The government will exert its utmost efforts to bring human rights abusers, corrupted individuals, as well as those who orchestrated the bomb explosion on June 23 before justice," Ahmed said in a statement.
Ahmed also stressed that, by bringing perpetrators to justice, his government is undertaking its "legal obligations to protect its citizens" and respond to their grievances.
On Tuesday, Ethiopian security forces arrested the ex-chief of the military-linked business conglomerate Metal Engineering Corporation (MeTEC), Kinfe Dagnew on corruption charges.
Dagnew, who resigned from MeTEC in April amid allegations of widespread corrupt practices, is one of the many senior Ethiopian military and intelligence officials who were detained by the Ethiopian police during the past few days.
Police also on Thursday disclosed the arrest of Yared Zerihun, the former deputy chief of the Ethiopia National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).
Zerihun, who had been on the run for several days, was arrested from an undisclosed location on Wednesday evening. NISS has in recent years been accused of torturing and killing dissidents and rebels.
Police also on Thursday arrested Gudeta Olana, Head of Security Division at Ethiopia Telecom, for an alleged intimidation and obstruction of investigators who were probing alleged corrupt practices at the MeTEC, which was the most powerful conglomerate in the East African country under the Ethiopian military.
Berhanu Tsegaye, Ethiopia's Attorney General, on Monday disclosed that 63 intelligence and army officers have been arrested over accusations of corruption and human rights abuses during a span of six years from 2011 to 2017.
"Some of the suspects have already appeared before court, while we are currently searching for other fugitive suspects," Tsegaye told reporters on Monday.
He said some of the fugitive suspects are believed to be hiding inside the country, while others are suspected to have escaped to foreign countries.
The arrest of the suspects, as part of a major crack-down on high level corruption and human rights abuse scandal, is said to be part of the promise the new administration of PM Ahmed made to the public following his appointment in April this year.
