Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Terrorism crime bill reformed

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The team drafting the Proclamation to Prevent and Control Terrorism Crimes announced that a new bill will replace the previous Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. The draft bill allows for people to pay bail when charged with terrorism crimes. It also allows for the criminal procedure code to decide on the bail rights like other crimes. It also makes it possible to impose smaller prison sentences than the previous law.
The minimum simple imprisonment is set to be eight days and the maximum three years. Also, the bill makes one-year rigorous imprisonment the minimum while making the death penalty the highest. The team elaborated to the audience at the Ellile Hotel that courts will obtain wider discretion to penalize convicts of a different degree and also are entitled with reviewing evidence of suspects who have claims about illegal detention. Similarly, if the suspect claims to the court that their confession has been obtained by use of force the court will be entitled to see the case in the same file with its ability to penalize the official up to 50,000 birr damage.
The draft brought a paradigm shift in its intention of protecting the government to protecting the people. The National Intelligence Security Service (NISS) and have been clearly forbidden from detaining or investigating any suspects giving the power to police. Also, the procedure to use extra methods of investigation has been strengthened by entitling the court to grant the act. If police can convince the court to use the extra investigation methods, like listening to the telephone conversation, it has to apply to the court and the court permission will be applicable for 3 months.
Attendants of the dialogue raised the issue that the period given for the investigation has been very wide and the need to minimize that.
If police obtained evidence from such investigations it should present them as they were obtained, unlike the previous one which allows the transformation of means of presentation. Converting telephone conversation to scripts has been a usual way which was criticized for a long time.
Also, the former proclamation was criticized to be very vague, which is against the criminal law principles. The draft began its elaboration with defining terrorism as the act which anyone with an intention to force the government or terrorize the people or part of a society to accept their political, religious or riot.
Causing a physical injury, kidnapping, endangering human life, damaging property, natural resource or the environment, disrupting public service with an intention with the intention of enforcing once political, riot or religious purpose will be regarded as terrorism.
The bill stated that if the above offenses caused death or destruction of the cultural heritage or results in severe damage on infrastructure or if the commuter uses their cover to be a worker in a government institution or in other legal persons the imprisonment shall lie between 13 years up to 25 years.
The committee elaborates the rational to incorporate damages to heritages as terrorist acts taking experiences from other countries like Syria which damaging irreplaceable global heritage as a means to terrorize people and governments.
Aiming to fill the gaps of the previous proclamation the draft specifically excluded Public rally, job strike, or expression once idea in any means form the scope of definition. But if the acts are done to terrorize the people or to cause force the government for the religious, political or riot purpose the act will be fall under the definition.
The bill also excludes any formal or informal armed war on the government which is undertaken respecting the Geneva Convention and its protocols from the terrorist acts. Ethiopia which is a signatory of the Geneva conventions and its protocols gave pr
In the ways of declaring one legal person a terrorist organization the bill provided a process beginning at the Attorney General by presenting its evidence to the Council of Ministers. If the council approved the application it will pass it to the House of People Representative which is going to call the organization to present its evidence against the allegation. The HPR will vote after hearing the organization.
After the declaration of terrorism third parties rights are going to be respected before dissolving the company and confiscating its property.
The bill entitles the Federal High Court to have jurisdiction over the cases with the delegation of the Regional Supreme Courts.

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