The Right to Bail under Ethiopian Federal Anti-corruption Laws: Implications on the Right of the Accused (Case-oriented Study)
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Date
2013-05
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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Abstract
One of the fundamental rules that guide decisions during criminal justice administration is the
presumption that a suspect is innocent until his guilt has been established by a court of
competent jurisdiction. This presumption is enshrined in the FDRE constitution as fundamental
human rights. Consequently, the rights of suspects remain largely protected during the process
of criminal justice administration, from arrest to conviction. Full and non-discriminatory
realization of rights of human beings during criminal proceedings requires administration of
criminal justice in full compliance with human rights standards. This research examines the
Constitutional, Procedural and Judicial significance of bail in criminal justice administration in
the Federal Courts of Ethiopia. Thus, the practice in the federal courts of ensuring protection of
rights to be presumed innocent and to be released on bail as an element of fair trial guarantees
are examined. The research therefore has analyzed the factors that influence bail decisions and
just administration of bail in Federal Courts, with emphasis on laws and practices on criminal
proceedings of corruption offences. With a view to inform the study with evidences from the
practice the study besides to the legal framework has examined cases and proceedings of
corruption offences and investigated the enforcement of essential bail rights in the course of the
proceedings. Based on these investigations the study has found that the practice in the federal
courts seen diminishing the protection that should be given to fundamental guarantees of person
accused/suspected of corruption offense. Firstly, article 4 (1) of the revised anti-corruption
proclamation which provides that an arrested person suspected of a corruption offense
punishable for more than ten years shall not be released on bail has denied the court its
important role in regards to protection of the rights to release on bail and to be presumed
innocent of an accused person. This opens a space for arbitrary application of the commission’s
power and prevents the court from playing its role by examining seriousness of the offense, the
nature of evidence and behavior of the suspect. This observation is further confirmed by analysis
of cases examined by this study which shown that suspects were detained for longer period and
finally found innocent. In another note the study also found that article 5 (2) of the same
proclamation undermines the right of suspect because it automatically authorizes suspension of
a lower court decision to release the suspect on bail based only on filing of appeal by the
prosecutor or investigator. This coupled with the fact that the appeal process usually takes
longer time it results in punishing suspects before conviction. Moreover, the fact that article 7
IV
(4) of the proclamation mandatorily provides that matters related to bail shall be tried only by
the court that has jurisdiction to hear corruption offence cases makes realization of the right to
bail difficult. This is so due to the fact that federal courts are not permanently present in all parts
of the country and hears cases on a circuit court arrangement which in between the suspect faces
lengthy detention before trial. Owing to this the study found that the current legislative
framework and practice has weakness in dealing with right to bail of suspects of corruption
offense. Thus the legislative framework and the practice of federal courts in connection to bail
rights of person suspected of corruption offence needs to be revised so that it becomes
compatible to the constitutional guarantees and international human rights standards.
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Keywords
Right to Bail under Ethiopian Federal Anti-corruption