A contractor who has worked for the State and Justice Departments has been arrested and charged with spying for Ethiopia, according to several US officials with knowledge of the situation, Report informs referring to The New York Times.
The man, Abraham T. Lemma, 50, of Silver Spring, Md., faces two counts under the Espionage Act and was taken into custody last month. Not much was known about the case, which remains sealed in Federal District Court in Washington and could be made public as early as this week.
Efforts to reach Mr. Lemma’s lawyer and family were unsuccessful. The Justice Department declined to comment.
Mr. Lemma’s LinkedIn profile describes him as a part-time systems analyst for the State Department who has worked at the department’s Diplomatic Security Service since 2019.
Ethiopia, situated on the geopolitically critical Horn of Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world, facing drought, famine, political unrest and bloody conflict with neighboring Eritrea.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for trying to restart peace negotiations with Eritrea. But in 2020, fighting broke out between Ethiopia’s military and a paramilitary group in the country’s northern Tigray region, killing tens of thousands.
Since 2020, the United States has given the country more than $3 billion in aid to assist in its recovery from civil war and drought, according to the State Department.
This year, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited Ethiopia as part of an effort to bolster ties with the United States amid the rising influence of Russia and China.