At the Federal High Court’s Lideta Division, on Dejazmach Bekele Weya Street, one of the government’s largest public-corruption prosecutions of the year began last week with a crowded courtroom, a late start and a charge sheet the presiding judges ordered needed change.

Federal prosecutors brought charges against Esmlealem Mihiretu, former director general of the Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise (EPSE); Dibara Fufa, deputy director general of the Ethiopian Petroleum & Energy Authority (EPEA); and 13 others accused of taking part in an alleged scheme that diverted fuel from the official supply chain. Prosecutors allege the defendants conspired with others for personal gain, supplied fuel to unauthorised parties, disrupted government operations and helped create artificial shortages in the market.

The case turns on more than 3.8 million litres of fuel, including White Diesel and Benzene, which prosecutors allege were sold to unauthorised beneficiaries. According to the charge sheet, the state lost more than 68.8 million Br.

The defendants appeared before the Third Anti-Corruption Bench on May 7, 2026, when the charges were formally read. Nine defendants have been in police custody since April 8 and were brought to court for the hearing. They include Shumalem Birhane, a fuel supply and distribution monitoring expert at the Authority; Estifanos Getnet, head of the Energy Market Research & Tariff Desk at the Authority; and five other individuals, as well as Esmlealem and Dibara.

Police brought the defendants to court around 10am, but the hearing did not begin on schedule. Judges were still working from their offices, and the Bench had not convened. In the narrow courtroom, federal police officers stood alert while detainees sat in a single row. Family members were seated apart from them. Defence lawyers and prosecutors waited in their designated places.

The morning session began shortly after 11am, following two unrelated cases. A judge of the three-judge panel read the charges aloud while the prosecutor followed the document line by line, marking it with a pen. Most defence lawyers stood near the judges’ bench, listening with folded arms and rarely consulting the papers. A few checked the charge sheet from time to time. The defendants showed little visible reaction as the indictments were read.

The Presiding Judge was less discreet, correcting clerical errors in the charge sheet and ordering prosecutors to correct them. After the reading, defence lawyers asked for a short adjournment to prepare preliminary objections.

Prosecutors filed five charges. Esmlealem was named in one count, while Dibara faces three separate charges. The indictments include abuse of public office, organised corruption, facilitating contraband fuel trading, undermining the national fuel distribution system and contributing to fuel shortages across the country.