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). Q <7 38 kW 2 eo’ ge 0