209.
The African Commission agrees with the Complainants that the
procedure adopted by the Respondent State in bringing the accused
persons to justice failed to assign blame within a reasonable length of
time. The Victims were detained for three years before their trial finally
started in 1994. Their trial dragged on for more than thirteen years
before a final judgment was reached in 2007. The pre-trail detention of
the Victims and their long continuous detention even after they were
charged essentially meant substituting pre-trial detention for their
punishment. The African Commission agrees that their long preventive
custody thus lost its purpose as an instrument to serve the interests of
sound administration of justice. The prolonged imprisonment without
conviction of the Victims for a period of about 16 years clearly violates
their right to be presumed innocent in that it was meant as a sanction
prior to the delivery of the judgment. As held by the Inter-American
Court, the deprivation of a person‟s liberty for a disproportionate time
is the same as serving a sentence in advance of the judgment. The
African Commission agrees with the Complainant that the Victims were
criminally punished by presuming their guilt even before they were
heard, in violation of the principle of presumption of innocence
established in Article 7 (1) (b) of the African Charter, Article XX of the
Universal Declaration and rule XXX of the Principles and Guidelines
on fair trial.57
The African Commission,
210.
Declares that the Respondent State has violated Articles 7(1)(b)
of the African Charter.
Alleged Violation of Article 7(1)(d) – right to have ones cause heard.
Article 7(1)(d) of the African Charter states:
(d) the right to be tried within a reasonable time by an impartial court or
tribunal.
211.
The Complainants allege that the Respondent State has violated
the former Derg offcial‟s right to a fair trial by deliberatley denying
them the right to be tried by an impartial court within a reasonable
time as enshrined in Article 7(1)(d) of the African Charter.58 It states
that the causes for the delay include the following :
a. Dismantling of the Ethiopian Court system by the Government;
b. ambitious nature of the transitional justice ethiopia pursued;
c. absence of appropriate legal checkpoints;
57
See also Waldemar Gerónimo Pinheiro and José Víctor dos Santos v. Paraguay.
58
See submissions on Merit.
49