grievance that he was denied legal aid for the first time in his Application
before this Court.
45. The Respondent State contends that the Applicant could have applied for
legal aid during the trial, or during his appeals before the High Court and
before the Court of Appeals. It also contends that that the Applicant had the
legal remedy of raising the allegations as grounds of appeal before the High
Court and the Court of Appeal, if he was truly aggrieved, but failed to do so.
46. The Respondent State further asserts that since the Applicant is claiming
that not being granted legal aid deprived him of the right to be heard, he
could have filed for an Application to review the Court of Appeal’s decision
under Rule 66(1)(b) of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2009. This Rule provides
for a review on the basis of a party being “wrongly deprived of an opportunity
to be heard”, which the Respondent State considers to be a component of
the right to a fair hearing.
47. It is the Respondent State’s submission that since the Applicant did not
pursue these remedies that were available to him and that there was no
delay in accessing them, this Application has not met the admissibility
requirement under Rule 40(5) of the Rules12 and should therefore be
dismissed.
*
48. The Applicant did not make any submissions on this point.
***
49. The Court notes that pursuant to Article 56(5) of the Charter, whose
provisions are restated in Rule 50(2)(e) of the Rules, any application filed
before it shall fulfil the requirement of exhaustion of local remedies. The rule
of exhaustion of local remedies aims at providing States the opportunity to
12
Corresponding to Rule 50(2)(e) of the Rules of 25 September 2020.
13