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114 J.L. Pol'y & Globalization 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/jawpglob114 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Law, Policy and Globalization ww-ivste.om ISSN 2224-3240 (Paper) ISSN 2224-3259 (Online) Vol.114, 2021 IISTE Ethiopia Justice Sectors: Are They Serving Justice or The Politics? Solomon Dessalegn Dibaba' Abstract The criminal justice process involves interrogation of the arrested or accused persons by investigative police; investigation by the public prosecutor which institutes charges; and enforcement of committal for trial by the judiciary. As investigative police and public prosecutor enforce the law, their success or failure is not measured by the number of convictions or case attritions, but by the level of their professionalism and integrity in the course of fair, competent, responsible, effective and efficient performance in accordance with the law. Based on this the paper explores and discusses the rights of arrested or accused persons vis-a-vis the role and responsibility of Ethiopia justice sectors. The paper devoted to assess whether the justice sectors in Ethiopia are serving the justice or politics particularly under the governing body. To address these issues descriptive qualitative research design was used to analyze the gathered data. Primary and secondary sources of data were used. Interview with purposively selected professionals from justice sectors including arrested politicians with their advocators was one of the tools for data gathering and analysis. In addition, documents, news, and features from private and government legal websites were used as secondary sources of data. Further to get necessary information from aforementioned sources of data, writer own observation and document analysis were employed as data gathering tools. Using the mentioned data above, this paper has disclosed the existing problems and substantial recommendations to relieve the existing problems. Keywords: Attorney General, Police Investigation, Judiciary, Role of Government, Justice, Politics and Ethiopia. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/ 114-01 Publication date:October 31st 2021 1. Introduction Commencement of criminal justice system begins from information of the commission of crime and ends at execution of court judgment. The information of the commission of the crime could reach the police through different channels. These are complaint, accusation and the occurrence of flagrant offences. The criminal justice process involves interrogation of accused persons by the police; investigation by the public prosecutor which institutes charges; and enforcement of committal for trial or enforcement of sentences by prison administrations. As these three organs enforce the law, their success or failure is not measured by the number of convictions or case attritions, but by the level of their professionalism and integrity in the course of fair, competent, responsible, effective and efficient performance in accordance with the law. From information of the commission of the crime up to punishment of the criminal's: police, public prosecutor, courts of law and prison administrations are the organs involved in the criminal justice process. Once the criminal justice triggered, it is often followed by investigation to substantiate the case with evidence to prove guilt. A criminal justice system may have a spectrum of features ranging from primacy to due-process vis-a-vis focus on crime control model. Criminal justice systems tend not to fall completely within one model or the other: most seek to strike a balance between the two.1 The due-process model gives priority to fairness of procedure and to protecting the innocent from wrongful conviction, accepting that a high level of protection for suspects makes it more difficult to convict the guilty and that some guilty people will therefore go free.2 Crime control model places most importance on convicting the guilty, taking the risk that occasionally some innocent people will be convicted.3 The Ethiopian criminal justice system seems to reflect the due process model. This paper focuses on and explores the following important points: first, it mainly discusses rights of suspected, arrested and accused persons incorporated in Ethiopia substantive and procedural law. Second, it discusses the role and responsibility of Ethiopia justice sectors vis-a-vis the rights of suspected, arrested and accused persons. Finally, this paper assess whether the justice sectors in Ethiopia are serving the justice or politics under the transitional government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. To address these points provided above the writer used primary and secondary source of data for strong based evidence. Purposive sampling was employed to select the sources of data and tools of data gathering and analyzing. The primary sources were totally twenty-five (25) key informants. Accordingly, eight (8) advocators from Oromia political prisoners ' The author has got LLB (Mekelle University, School of Law), LLM in Environment and Land Law (Hawassa University, School of Law), currently, Lecturer at Law in Oromia State University, Finfinne, Ethiopia, and Coordinator of LLM programme given by Vrije University of Amsterdam in collaboration with Oromia State University. Possible to reach the author through: e-mail: solomondesalan azaihcom Catherine Elliot and France Quinn, English legal system, (England: person education limited, 6' ed., 2005), p 338 2 James A. Inciardi, Criminal justice, (Fort Worth: Harcourt, Inc., Alabama ed., 7' ed., 2002), p 13 ' Id 1

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