Accused persons’ speedy trial rights in Ethiopia’s criminal proceedings: theory and practice

Abstract

The right to a speedy trial is one of the fundamental rights of suspected persons enshrined in international and domestic human rights. The right has also been incorporated into Ethiopia’s substantive and procedural laws. When there is a delay in bringing the accused to trial, there must be justified grounds of reasonableness and good cause. However, there is no standard to determine what constitutes a delay of trial in Ethiopia. Hence, delay is to be determined on a case-by-case basis by courts using their discretionary power. Despite this, the violation of the right to speedy trial of accused persons is a serious problem in Ethiopia’s criminal justice system. Delay of trial is observed in the overall process of criminal investigation, prosecution, and trial stages of crime proceedings. The purpose of this study is to critically examine the right to speedy trial of accused persons. The study uses both qualitative and doctrinal methods of research. Data is gathered from interviews, written sources- legal documents, and commentaries to meet the study’s objectives. The study found that factors for violation of the right to speedy trial of persons accused are institutional and legal by nature. The institutional problems relate to manpower, and commitment of parties involved in the adjudication of crime such as investigating officers, prosecutors, courts, and prison administration. The legal problems related to the provisions of the criminal procedure code on remand and adjournment. Thus, these problems have to be solved to protect the accused person’s speedy trial right.

Keywords

• Accused persons
• constitution
• criminal justice
• FDRE
• speedy trials
• rights