Special court “violates rights”

Author of the current Eritrean constitution, Bereket Habte Selassie, has criticised the special military court set up by President Isayas Afewerki to combat corruption. In a searing criticism distributed on the Internet, Bereket - a former attorney general in Ethiopia, and member of Eritrean People’s Liberation Front - said the court violated the right of a fair trial. He said it was “hard to understand why a special court with draconian powers would be needed for the task of combating corruption when a division of the high court could be assigned the same task”.

He said the special court was a military tribunal, and that it had no appeal, contrary to the provisions of the Eritrean constitution. All government and private bodies were required to cooperate with the special court, or would be liable to a heavy fine or three years’ imprisonment, Bereket said. Calling it a “travesty of justice and an offence to reason and fair deal”, Bereket said the court had been used to sentence a number of people who have been detained without trial. “The special court is dismal testimony... to things gone wrong in a country that started with a great promise,” Bereket said.