Ethiopian Criminal Process (original) (raw)

The administration of the criminal justice system t ries to strike a balance between the search for truth and the fairness of th e process. To this end, the law should protect individual rights and impose various legal burdens on the state. One such tool is the principle of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. This is a constitutional principle under Ethiopia n l w and requires the public prosecutor to prove each element constitutin g the crime which, as argued in this article, should be proved beyond reasonable doubt. However, this principle is being violated by various subsidiary l aws, procedures and practices. First, there are various provisions in the criminal law that limit (or arguably disregard) this constitutional principle. Such crim inal law provisions assume as proved the existence of some of the elements of cer tain crimes without requiring the public prosecutor to submit evidence. S cond, the Criminal Justice Administration Policy adopted in 2011 conte mpl...