One of the suspects on trial for the June 23 assassination attempt on the life of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed was the anti-terrorism head with the Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), the country’s spy agency.

Tesfaye Urge, one of the about 30 suspects arrested after the June 23 assassination attempt on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, was a person with an oxymoronic title of the head of the department for the anti-terrorism task force with NISS.

An investigation team of the Federal Police say the June 23 assassination attempt was the work of Tesfaye Urge, while he was still running the department of the anti-terrorism department task force with NISS.

Police today requested a first instance court in Addis Ababa for an additional 14 days to finish their investigation on Tesfaye Urge, who has allegedly worked in tandem with other suspects abroad and inside the country in recruiting the perpetrators and coordinating the entire operation. Police told the court that the additional 14 days were needed to gather more evidence on suspects linked to the assassination attempt that are based abroad and inside the country. The court gave police additional 7 days and also denied bail to the suspect.

We will keep you updated with the latest developments and updates from the region.

Halgan Media