Wondwossen Demissie(Associate Profesere)Bebizuh Mulugeta2025-03-052025-03-052024https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/4771Criminal justice measures to counter-terrorism shall be proactive so as to reduce the occurrence of terrorist attacks. This approach, among others, involves using SITs which are secretive methods that can be used to gather information/evidence without alerting the suspect. Though SITs are helpful for the prevention and investigation of terrorism, there are also human rights concerns raised in the use of SITs. This makes it necessary to balance human rights and security by setting preconditions of the use of SITs. Under the PSTCP Police can employ SITs subject to the preconditions that shall be fulfilled to use them for counter-terrorism investigations. In addition, NISS is responsible to follow up terrorism according to its establishment proclamation. This research examines the law and the practice in use of SITs in counter-terrorism in Ethiopia. By employing qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, this research finds out that Ethiopian federal police is not using SITs that the anti-terrorism prosecutions are dependent on technical investigation reports prepared by NISS. Even if court authorization is a precondition to use SITs, none of the court cases and investigation files studied in this research contains evidence of court authorization. And it can be presumed that the evidences were gathered without court warrant. There are divergent practices, in court as well as prosecutorial decisions, in scrutinizing the legality of evidences obtained through SITs. In addition, despite the fact that PSTCP obliges for evidences gathered through SITs to be presented in the same way as they are obtained, in the actual practice prosecutions are being conducted by using technical investigation reports as evidence. As the judgments in the court cases, the evidences could not be presented directly because they are classified as „top-secret‟. The courts as well as prosecutorial decisions show inconsistency in scrutinizing the legality of the evidences and admitting/using technical investigation reports as evidence as well. For better implementation of the law on SITs this research recommends, among others, the Ethiopia Federal Police shall start using SITs by its own. In addition, a detailed legal framework on intelligence/evidence exchange between NISS and other law enforcement organs shall be enacted.en-USCounter-terrorismEthiopiaSpecial Investigation Techniques (SITs)ProsecutionsThesis