Towards a Comprehensive Prosecution Service in Ethiopia: Noting the New Developments by Leake Mekonen Tesfay

Abstract  Although Ethiopia’s public prosecution is a recent development, continuous changes have been made since the first public prosecution department was established. While the prosecution service has been wavering between centralized prosecution department at times and specialized prosecution institutions in another, a new comprehensive prosecution department – the Federal Attorney General has been recently established in the federal government taking almost all prosecution powers to it. This article briefly reviews the historical development of the prosecution department, the ups and downs between centralized and specialized prosecution institutions and the new developments related to the establishment of the Federal Attorney General as a comprehensive prosecution institution. Key Words Public Prosecution, Specialized Prosecution Institutions, Centralized Prosecution, Ethiopia

A point about some traffic police corruption

            Our traffic police are not clean handed. This doesn’t mean all traffic police are corrupt. There are many ethical and professional and country-loving traffic police as opposed to the corrupt ones. I have been traveling from Addis to the South region and back to Addis many times. It is a very common practice for the drivers to give Birr 50 or 100 to the traffic police to have a ‘safe’ pass besides overloading passengers,missing dispatch paper(‘mewicha’),driving above the speed limit, driving a technically deficient car, overpricing the transportation fee above the tariff,etc. These faults of the driver are ignored as seen in return to the Birr 50 or 100 bribe.The drivers have told me that the traffic police do collect the money from each public transport car. What an ashaming practice! If our law enforcement organs are corrupt, then who can enforce the law? Will these corrupt ones will enforce it? No. A serious measure has to be taken on this problem. Let you share us your opinions on what measure should be taken to get rid of this problem.

Forgery is a real threat to our Justice System

Nowadays,documents submitted to employers as evidence of education and work experience,driving licenses,ID cards,certificates of ownership,business licenses,etc are prepared in a forged way.Such forged documents are often submitted to courts and administrative tribunals as evidence resulting in miscarriage of justice.So,all of us have to fight against this threat to our justice system.The Federal Police forensic directorate documents investigation department is making a great contribution in fighting forgery. Each and every one of us should also contribute our share in fighting forgery.Otherwise,injustice will triumph over justice.What is your opinion on the issue?

Unsolicited Mobile Text Messages

        Day in and day out,a lot of text messages pop into our mobile phones. These are not from family or friends. Some of the text messages are sent from the telecom operator ,Ethiotelecom;Others are sent from government offices to convey a certain message and others are sent from organizations that run ads.,etc...Whoever is the sender,there is no a request given by us to get these messages. We are rarely asked whether or not we are interested to receive such messages.Nor anyone of us has given permission to the senders to send messages to our phones. In my opinion,our phones are ours;your phone is yours.So sending unsolicited text messages may amount to infringement of our privacy rights something like somebody entering our house without permission.The problem related to this issue is that there is no a clear law which directly regulates such privacy issues. I think it needs regulation.What is your opinion on the issue?

Let all police respect Human Rights in the New Year ('' ስትገረፍ፤ታወራዋለህ '' ቢቀር)...

It is a common complaint in Ethiopia that some police officers violate human rights of suspects and/or sentenced persons. Our FDRE constitution has clear provisions concerning the human rights of suspects and even of convicted and sentenced persons.For example,use of force to get evidence is prohibited because torture is a crime against humanity. Even evidence found by use of force has no acceptance.Ethiopia has accepted all basic international human rights treaties and incorporated them to be part and parcel of the constitution. Even though the law is clear,some police members violate it and violate human rights.Some do so out of lack of awareness;some do this out of lack of the proper criminal investigation skills and some do so just to abuse their power.Law enforcement should be done respecting constitutionally guaranteed human rights and following the legal procedures in the criminal procedure code.Otherwise,it is unconstitutional.It must be corrected in the new year!What is your opinion on the issue?

Probono Service of some Ethiopian Federal Lawyers

As it is well known,lawyering is not a solid for profit business.It is rather a profession by which the lawyer gives legal advice representing clients at courts of law or administrative tribunals and in return,gets remuneration or payment for the services delivered.Even though payment of money is involved in the contract of service,it doesn't mean a lawyer needs payment in every case.Since lawyering is a profession one pursues to stand for justice,lawyers must give free legal service to those who can't afford to pay.Actually,it is being done in Ethiopia too.In Ethiopia,every federal lawyer must give 50 hours of free service to those who can't pay.But the problem is not on the time or hours spent but the problem of not giving equal weight to paid and free services.If it is free service,some lawyers prepare poor statements of claim and/or defense,miss court sessions and and even if they appear,they come unprepared.This is unethical. It needs correction.What is your opinion on the issue? P

Opinion Versus Defamation

If you say that you think somebody is a thief,it is your opinion but if you say you saw somebody steal,you are alleging a fact. If what you thought is proven wrong,it is not a crime because you have freedom of thought. But if what you alleged as a fact is proven false,then this constitutes the crime known as defamation. Have a good day!!!

Concept of terrorism

      Terrorism is related with trying to get a certain aim succeed by means of intimidation and force,by means of making people fear a certain actual or potential threat. The basic problem of terrorism is that it is often indiscriminate about targets. For example,if a bomb exploded in a public place,those who may die or be damaged are most of the time civilians,women,and children etc...who have no thing to do with politics. So,the effect of terrorism is harmful. That is why countries need anti-terrorism law. That is why we also have this law. So,the need for anti-terrorism law is vivid.