Chinese national gets 9-year prison term in Ethiopia for smuggling telecom device

ADDIS ABABA – A court in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa has sentenced a Chinese national to nine years in jail for reportedly trying to smuggle highly censored communication gear into the country, the country’s ministry of justice said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the statement, Lee Nayong, the Chinese national the ministry referred to as ‘a foreign national’ was arrested at Bole International Airport last year and was arranged in court where he was given the legal opportunity to defend himself but failed to do so.

“A foreigner who smuggled a telecom device into Ethiopia for telecom fraud was sentenced to a 9-year prison term and fine,” the ministry said, adding that the suspect “was charged with violating the provisions of Article 3 (1) of the Proclamation No. 761/2004 on the Elimination of Telecom Fraud.”

The statement said the Chinese national had “entered the Bole International Airport in Ethiopia without the permission of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology [and] imported two 8-SIM and 16-SIM cards gateway device for telecom fraud.”

The statement said the defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge, but was sentenced after failing to provide an argument of defense. He was sentenced to nine years and a fine of 50,000 Ethiopian birr.

The Ethiopian court also ordered for the telecom device and its accessories to be confiscated by the federal government who had banned the import of such devices because costs the government millions of birr annually.

Ethiopia’s Telecom Fraud Offence Proclamation bans imports of any telecom equipment without obtaining prior permit from the Ministry. The law also says such offences are punishable with rigorous imprisonment of up to 15 years and with fine up to Birr 150,000.