Complete Book PDF (4.12MB) - World Bank eLibrary

Justice Sector Corruption in Ethiopia 219
that the effort to reinforce the working relationship between prosecutors
and police could lead to more corruption among the former, but again the
emphasis on efficiency may drive out any such tendency, and otherwise
the proposal seems a practical one.
As with the courts, greater monitoring of productivity and an emphasis
on reducing delays and raising efficiency may drive out any petty corruption.
Political intervention, including directions to press forward with cases
against opposition members or anyone who had fallen out of favor with
the government, is another matter, but although few discounted its presence,
it was seen as restricted to a limited number of cases. In an ongoing,
politically charged case, it is also reported that prison authorities illegally
restricted detainees’ access to counsel. Whether this was corruption or
simple abuse would depend on why the authorities acted this way (that is,
to extort bribes, on instructions, or just because they could do it).
Judges. For judges, corruption in criminal cases was mentioned less often.
Here the major charge was that, in cases important to the government,
judges were more likely to sway their decisions (a) in line with explicit
instructions, or (b) still more likely, with what they believed the government
wanted. A few ex-judges and outside observers mentioned the
phenomenon of “looking over one’s shoulder”: the sense that judges
feared making a decision that would negatively affect their careers or
even lead to dismissal. A few examples were given: a judge who lost his
driver and his per diems after a decision the government clearly disliked,
and another who was denied certain benefits (leave for training, for
example) because, he believed, he was too independent and too critical.
Out-and-out dismissal is apparently no longer common, but critics
claimed that a series of subtle pressures could force a judge to resign. To
avoid these circumstances, it was said that judges sometimes asked to be
removed from cases or simply granted more and longer adjournments to
avoid the hard decisions.
There are other kinds of pressures—from family, acquaintances, and
even colleagues. One judge mentioned being contacted by the parties and
even the prosecutor regarding certain cases; the guess was that there
might have been corruption behind some of these requests, but no money
was offered to the judge.
One innovation at the federal level that may curb some of these pressures
is the introduction of a bail bench. Bail amounts tend to be relatively
low, and although there are some nonbailable offenses, it is
conceivable that an individual judge might be convinced to ignore that