Author: Karoli Ssemogerere. PHOTO/HANDOUT
2024 has tested judicial systems worldwide. In Japan, a case of mistaken identity pursued by a murder convict’s sister, now aged 92, resulted in his 1969 conviction being overturned 55 years later.
As Donald Trump walks back to the White House, the Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, has hung up his robes, terminating two criminal prosecutions that tested the paradigm, “judicial power belongs to the people.” Nowhere is this used so often as in the United States, especially the jury verdict as an exercise of that power, being tried and convicted by your own peers.
The Trump cases have added another layer of jurisprudence on the pitfalls of trying a former president after he leaves office.
The US Supreme Court in June, overturning a unanimous Court of Appeals decision, with an eye on the November elections, was sure, then not so sure, what comprised official acts of the president, stating there was immunity for the first time from alleged criminal acts, but leaving a small door open for unofficial acts by a president.
Mwai Kibaki next door extended blanket immunity to his predecessor and all his associates in 2002, leaving them to tangle with only civil suits. Once, Mr Kibaki’s own presidential election petition failed on account of failure to serve Mr. Daniel arap Moi in office as president.
The state continued to use the court system to hound nosy Americans out of Russia. Russia seems to have started to export the boxed accused stand, keeping the accused in a box, an image Ugandans are starting to process when they view proceedings in the General Court Martial. Mr Putin, the master of his game, has used these trials for maximum effect, whose eventual outcome was prisoner exchange with the Americans of Russians convicted of espionage in the West.
The European Court of Human Rights, established by the Council of Europe, the UK’s last main tie to the mainland, in 2022 declared the asylum seeker rendition to Rwanda illegal, forcing the conservatives to introduce a bill in Parliament to declare Rwanda safe. After the July election, Labour abandoned the GBP 100 million scheme entirely.
Refugees have put Europe on tension for a variety of reasons. First, as a humanitarian issue, they point to the widening scope and intensity of global conflicts, a few interstate, but many intrastate. Refugees in continuous flight from Central Asia, Afghanistan, Syria, the Middle East, which has become ensnared in a multi-country conflict between Israel, Lebanon, and Iran. They are symptoms of failed states—Haiti at the top of the western hemisphere, where gangs have taken over, but also the near collapse of many other states, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and others that have produced a human caravan northwards through Mexico into the United States.
Stung by the election loss, US President Joe Biden ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for a number of foreign nationals. Surprisingly, Africa is producing fewer refugees than before. Nonetheless, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Mali, and Burkina Faso are all in some form of internal conflict. In Sudan, warlords have taken reign over most of Sudan, what remains of the formal state functions now in Port Sudan rather than Khartoum.
In political disputes, the courts demurred. Next door, the courts failed to stop the impeachment of the second deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, “Riggy G,” whose ouster may land Kenya in one of its most expensive presidential campaigns ever, two years early.
In the Hague, which I was fortunate to visit, the International Criminal Court's concern continues on how the two global courts are handling the Israeli conflict.
The International Court of Justice, in a landmark decision, found Israel responsible potentially for acts of genocide, while Israel continues unbothered with its acts of retribution.
This month, the International Criminal Court announced arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hizbollah commander.
Most of the Hamas leaders have been put out of commission. In signs that the tide is changing, Israel has offered Lebanon a ceasefire, in a conflict that is threatening to embroil the entire Middle East in conflict.
Inside Israel, in June 2024, a sharply divided Supreme Court removed the draft exemption for ultra-orthodox Jewish men, the “Yeshiva,” from military service, upending a domestic contradiction where the most extreme political views were protected from military service.
Mr Karoli Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]
