CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Mengesha, Mengistu Worku |
|---|---|
| Title | Delay of Justice in Ethiopia and the Genocide trial of Derg Officials |
| Summary | This study deals with the protection of the right to speedy trial by Ethiopia courts. Ethiopia ratified International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR which recognized the right to speedy trial and other rights for persons accused of any criminal activities. Also this right has constitutional recognition under the country’s constitution. Right to speedy trial, an element of fair trial rights is a fundamental guarantee important for the enforcement of other rights without exception to the crimes involved. Nevertheless, due to legal and practical problems speedy trial right in Ethiopia has suffered a great deal of limitations and violations at most. In Ethiopia it is a common fact for cases to spend many years before the court pass judgment. The paper assumes the absence of a judicial test is one reason for these prevalent delays. Hence, to resolve this problem the study employs the Barker test developed by US courts to resolve violations of right to speedy trial by appellate or trials courts. The national courts of Ethiopia have also prosecuted the officials of the former government on genocide and crimes against humanity through trials that took more than a decade. However, these trials were challenged on the amount of time they took in addition to other things. Therefore the test will be used to evaluate whether the famous trial of the Former President of the country and his top officials suffered a delay in violation of right to speedy trial. Eventually, Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam case had in fact suffered an uncommon delay due to reasons caused by all the parties including problems related to the legal system. And most of these reasons were caused by parties other than the defendants. Because of this the defendants in the case are entitled to benefit from right to speedy trial claims that obligates the charges to be dismissed. |
| Supervisor | Gar Yein Ng |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/mengesha_mengistu.pdf |
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