By Adia Jildo
A civil society activist is appealing to the leadership of Judiciary to send mobile court to handle criminal and civil cases in Renk which had backlog of cases hence delaying justice.
The Executive Director of Community empowerment for progress organization (CEPO), Edmond Yakani said that there is no more space to keep suspects as they wait for court ruling.
“A mobile court should be sent to Renk because we cannot keep people to suffer in distention centers with minor cases due to absence of the judges. People are suffering in the police because there are no judges. Even minor cases which was supposed to take one week, they are taking one month,” Mr. Yakani said.
The activist said the ineffectiveness of judiciary system is denying justice for many as suspects spend long time waiting for justice to prevail.
He said that judiciary should see to it that bulk cases are taken care of. “The police cells are full because of the absence of judge even when other cases are minor and would be handled without going to prison if there was a judge,” he said.
Mr. Yakani said reports that reached him stated that over 80 percent of those in police custody are women and children.
He stated that the absence of judges means both criminals and civil cases are high, adding that there are numbers of cases who have not been tried by police, and the police are now holding big number.
He called on the judiciary system to operate according to the rule of law when availing justice.
He said detainees cannot be moved to prisons without being tried by the judges, noting that there are so many prisoners who were supposed to be tried by the judges and within a certain period of time.
The Executive Director of CEPO said the three police stations are now beyond capacity and needed to be sent to suspects needed to try to give space for other suspects to be tried.
He stated that some people might commit crimes and they will not be kept in police custody because there is no space to accommodate them.
He blamed government failure to facilitate and support judges in the states for justice to prevail.
“Absence of effective judiciary has denied so many justices. The situation of justice in the country is not as effective as expected because many judges have quitted the government role and most of them have become private defend lawyers. This has led to a drop in the number of lawyers which has brought a back log of cases in courts and police station,” he said.