The Ethiopian High Court Monday passed a guilty verdict against the bodyguard of late Ethiopian army Chief of Staff Seare Mekonnen.
The body guard Corporal Mesafint Tigabu pleaded not guilty and rejected the charges of killing Seare Mekonnen and a retired Major General Gezai Abrha.
The Ethiopian federal attorney general accused Corporal Mesafint Tigabu of killing the army generals in what seemed a coordinated attack as part of a coup attempt in Amhara regional state in 2018.
The army generals were shot dead in June 2019 in Addis Ababa in the Chief of Staff’s house where Mesafint was there as a bodyguard.
The coup attempt allegedly led by the late Amhara’s state security chief Asamenew Tsigie who was killed in a counter attack by security forces, left the head of the Amhara regional state’s president and four other officials dead.
Chief of staff Seare Mekonnen had only served as head of the military for a year after he was appointed by Mr Abiy, who made sweeping changes in the security apparatus when he took office last April 2018.
MG/abj/APA