77.
The position of the Applicant as stated during the public
hearing is that "there is no allegation that the Applicant makes pursuant to
having Counsel assigned to him that the Applicant did not himself make, albeit
without the sophistication that comes with having Counsel." In other words,
the Applicant's rejoinder merely refined the Applicant's application
which followed from his being represented by Counsel. The
Applicant stated that " ... in total, the fourteen pages that the Applicant, on
his own, without the benefit of Counsel filed, contains all the allegations and all
the complaints that he has made that are merely reiterated in the Rejoinder. In
fact, apart from perhaps a change of language, the only thing the Rejoinder
articulates that was not there in the earlier fourteen pages, are the specific
Articles of the African Charter alleged to have been violated".
78.
The Court notes that the Applicant's Reply to the Respondent's
Response largely restated the Applicant's position as enunciated in
the Application. Counsel for the Applicant merely links the alleged
violations with the relevant articles of the Charter. The Application
alluded to alleged violations.of the right to fair trial as set out in Article
7 of the Charter and Counsel merely expressly stated the same in
the Reply. The Reply to the Respondent's Response alleges
violations of Articles 1, 3, 5, 6, 7(1) and 9(1) of the Charter. The Court
finds that the Applicant's Reply to the Respondent's Response linked
more precisely with the Charter, the rights that the Applicant alleged
were violated, and that it did not introduce new issues.
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