116.
The Court is fortified in this position by jurisprudence of the
African Commission, which also applies and interprets the Charter,
the European
jurisdiction and
Court of Human
applies
Rights, which
is a Court of similar
provisions similar to those
being Article 6(3)(c) of the European
Convention
in the Charter,
and the Human
Rights Committee which applies Article 14(3)(d) of the ICCPR.
117. The African Commission
Avocats
Sans
Frontiéres
(on
has, in Communication
behalf
of Gaétan
231/99
Bwampamye)
v
Burundi elaborated on this provision in relation to the right to legal
assistance.'?
118.
The European Court has identified four factors that should be
taken into account, either severally or jointly, when determining if the
‘interests of justice” necessitates free legal aid, namely:
(i) The seriousness of the offence;
(ii) The severity of the potential sentence;
(iii) The complexity of the case and;
(iv) The social and personal situation of the defendant.?°
18 Communication
231/99,
Paragraph
30, 14th Activity Report 2000 — 2001. “The
Commission emphatically recalls that the right to legal assistance is a fundamental
element of
the right to fair trial. More so where the interests of justice demand it. It holds the view that in the
case under consideration, considering the gravity of the allegations brought against the accused
and the nature of the penalty he faced, it was in the interest of justice for him to have the benefit
of the assistance of a lawyer at each stage of the case.”
20 Benham v United Kingdom, ECtHR, Judgment of 10 June 1996, at paragraph 59;
Quaranta v Switzerland, ECtHR. Judgment of 24 May 1991, at paragraph 33; Zdravka
Stanev v Bulgaria, ECtHR, Judgment of 6 November 2012, at paragraph 38; Talat Tun?
v Turkey,
ECtHR,
ECtHR,
Judgment
Judgment of 27 March. 2007,
of 15 October
2009,
at paragraph
at paragraph
29.
56; Prezec
Biba
v Greece,
v Croatia,
ECtHR,
Judgment of 26 September 2000, at paragraph 29.
45