Respondent State to provide it; and that as "legal aid is provided only in homicide cases, the
Respondent State cannot therefore provide legal assistance to all those who seek it, since this is
directly related to the financial capacity and capability of the country’.
134. The
Respondent
repeatedly argued
that the Applicant has never brought to the
attention of the judge the fact that he was in need of legal aid; that at the onset of the
proceedings, the Applicant had said that he had the means to hire a lawyer, that thereafter
he never told the judge why he did away with his lawyer; and that even where the penalty
is that of life imprisonment, legal aid is not automatic and must be requested.
*
135. The question that arises at this juncture is whether or not, after the departure of
Advocate
Njau, the State had the obligation to provide the Applicant the services of a
lawyer under the free legal assistance scheme.
136.
Under Articles 3 and 7 of the Protocol, the Court applies the Charter and other
relevant human rights instruments and not the national laws of the Respondent State.
It
follows that the Court is not bound by the national laws of States, as such laws themselves
can
be
question
at variance
with
the
Charter
or the said
other
instruments,
are incompatible with the Charter and the instruments,
where
the laws
or do not meet
in
the
standards emanating from their interpretation.
137. The Court notes, in this regard, that Article 7 of the Charter does not specifically
address
the
issue
of provision
of free
legal
assistance.
In contrast,
the
International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights explicitly provides in its Article 14(3)(d) that "any
person charged with a criminal offense shall be entitled to the following minimum guarantees in
full equality: ... d) To be tried in his presence, and to defend himself in person or through legal
assistance of his own choosing; to be informed, if he does not have legal assistance, of this right;
and to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the interests of justice so require,
and without payment by him in any such case if he does not have sufficient means to pay for it”
(italics added).
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