ECOWAS court orders Ivorian government to release citizen in pre-trial detention since 2018

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The ECOWAS Court has ordered immediate release by the Cote d’Ivoire government of an Ivorian citizen, Mr. Kodjo Alain Victor Claude, who has been in pre-trial detention since 28June 2018 because his confinement violated his right to liberty and presumption of innocence.

fter the Court found the government in violation of his right to liberty and presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Delivering the judgment, judge rapporteur, Justice Daupe Atoki said that by detaining Mr Claude beyond the 18 months allowed by the country’s Criminal Code Procedure, which was the basis for his detention, violated its obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

“One of the fundamental principles of the right to a fair hearing is the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty,” the judge said citing Article 7 (1) (b) of the African Charter which relates to this right and provides that “Every individual shall have the right to have his cause heard,’ including “the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty by a competent court or tribunal.”

The Court held that in a criminal matter, in so far as a competent court has not pronounced on the guilt of a suspect, a presumption of innocence is attributed to that individual and that the public prosecutor has the burden of proving the guilt of the accused in order for the accused to be convicted of the crime he is charged with.

It added that the prosecution must in all cases prove that the accused is guilty, a principle which is so sacred to the right of the accused that if reasonable doubt remains, the accused must be acquitted.

The Court also urged the government to review Article 605 of its Criminal Code Procedure which it relied on for the continued detention of Mr Claude despite the order of the Investigating Chamber of the Court of Appeal for his release, which was ignored by the office of the public prosecutor.

The Court also awarded payment of 14 million CFA francs in favour of Mr Claude as moral damages for the arbitrary deprivation of his liberty and ordered the government to submit to the Court within a month measures taken to implement the orders of the Court.

In the initiating application filed by Souleymane Diallo, counsel to Mr Claude, a financial analyst and director of a company, the applicant alleged that the Ivoirian government violated his rights by keeping him in preventive detention beyond the accumulative legal limit of 18 months as specified in the Ivoirian Criminal Code Procedure.

-0- PANA PR/AR 27April2021