The Foreign currency controversy
and the court's decision
Mr. Mengnan, 20-years-old Chinese national, appear in the Federal
First Instance Court on May 13, 2010charged with the attempt to
smuggle foreign currency out of Ethiopia. The prosecutor of the
Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) took the charge
against him.
The indictment stated that Mr. Mengnan, had broken the law that
restricts the amount of foreign currency to be carried by travelers
when they leave Ethiopia. Mr. Mengnan had tried to smuggle out
of the country 40,000 US dollar without fulfilling the proper
documentation. As a matter of fact, Mr. Mengnan was allowed to
carry foreign currency not more than 3000 US dollar or other foreign
currency that is on a par with this sum and was required to have
a valid bank advice if he wanted to take money out beyond the
allowed sum. If the money was originally brought from abroad,
Mr. Mengnan was also liable to present customs declaration obtained
at the point of entry to Ethiopia – declaration which shows
the money’s previous legal importation. These evidences
are used to prove that a traveler had no link with the act of
smuggling and enables travelers to have smooth border crossing.
But, due to failure to present these documents, Mr. Mengnan
was suspected of smuggling foreign currency out of Ethiopia. Hence,
Mr. Mengnan was charged with gross violation of article 91/1 of
the Ethiopian Customs Proclamation no. 622/2009, article 20/4
and 3 of the Ethiopian National Bank Establishment proclamation
591/2008(amendment) and article 2 of the directive 25/2009 issued
by Ethiopian National Bank. But, this charge was vigorously denied
by Mr. Mengnan.
However, ERCA’s prosecutor had sufficient evidence to implicate
him in the smuggling. Some of the evidences presented by ERCA’s
prosecutor included three eye-witnesses. The most prominent eye-witnesses
were the customs officers who caught Mr. Mengnan red-handed while
he was trying to smuggle 40,000 US dollar out of the country.
The testimony of the eyewitnesses revealed that on his way back
to Khartoum, Sudan, on Thursday 6th of May 2010, Mr. Mengnan used
ten packets of coffee powders as a disguise and concealed 40,000
US dollar in three of the packed coffee powders in the vain hope
of smuggling the currency out of the country. According to their
testimony, the detection of the money was made possible by means
of x-ray machine and manual search.
The witnesses also disclosed that Mr. Mengnan had also given
bogus information when the customs officer asked him to give an
account of the contents of the bag under close scrutiny. But,
Mr Mengnan gave a guarded response and kept information about
the money back from the customs officer who was x-raying his bag.
He replied that there were only his clothes and ten packets of
coffee powders in his bag. He didn’t mention any thing about
the money he concealed in the three packets of the coffee powders.
Being suspicious of Mr. Mengnan’s response, the customs
officer ordered him to stay awhile for further manual check up.
After receiving the order to stay, Mr. Mengnan felt that he was
caught in a precarious position and might lose the money he concealed.
As a means to avoid the further check up on him, Mr. Mengnan tried
to escape with his bag while the customs officer was busy in checking
the bags of other travelers. However, his attempt ended with dismal
failure and was caught at a nearby ticket office in the terminal.
Furthermore, when the customs officer picked out of the bag the
three packets of coffee powders that contained the money, Mr Mengnan
had tried to snatch them out of the hands of the customs officer
and pleaded to search the other seven packets which contained
no money. But his plead received a negative response from the
customs officer and 40,000 US dollar was detected in the three
packets as a result of the manual search. Later, the money was
confiscated by customs and deposited in the Ethiopian commercial
Bank.
As a result of the testimony by the eye-witnesses, the full extent
of Mr.Mengnan’s attempt to smuggle the money become evident.
The eye-witnesses gave potent evidence in favor of ERCA’s
prosecutor, bore testimony to the smuggling activities of Mr.
Mengnan.
In response to ERCA’s testimony, Mr. Mengnan and his witnesses
were given the opportunity to provide counter-arguments. Mr. Mengnan
claimed that the money belongs to him and he had brought it from
abroad. He admitted that he had placed the money in the packed
coffee powders as a precaution against the thieves and pickpockets.
In his reply, he denied charges of attempting smuggle or any criminal
intent. However his reply was unsupported; he failed to present
evidence i.e. a declaration or valid bank advice. Assisted by
his lawyer, he told the court that his failure to provide the
necessary documents resulted from full ignorance of the law. He
added that he is unaware of the law of the country set to control
the illegal outflow of foreign currency.
Unfortunately for him, ignorance of the law is no an excusable
defense. The court ruled that Mr. Mengnan had knowingly broken
the law and also found that ERCA’s witnesses had provided
conclusive evidence of Mr. Mengnan guilt. Consequently, the court
sentenced Mr. Mengnan to 3 years imprisonment without the prejudice
to confiscation of the money.
Dissatisfied with the decision of the Federal First Instance
Court, Mr. Mengnan appealed to the Federal Higher Court. However,
on July 1, 2010, the Federal Higher Court made a decision which
was consistent with the decision of Federal First Instance Court,
sentencing Mr. Mengnan for three years imprisonment. He got off
with a fairly light sentence because it was his first conviction.The
punishment is designed to deter potential smugglers of currency.
It is believed that such kind of punishment plays a critical role
in reducing the number of smugglers or those who engaged in illegal
transactions involving foreign currency.
Contributed by Abebe Hunachew
