Justice in south wollo zone law and practice i suth wollo zone | Page 8

lodged an application to set aside the judgment given in his absence but the court
rejected the application by providing the following reason.
“Article 197 and the following articles of the criminal procedure code are
applicable only where the accused fail to appear starting from the day fixed
for reading of the charge and accepting plea of guilty. But if the accused
attend the trial, hearing and examination of the witnesses of public
prosecutor and failed to appear on the date of the judgment his application
for set aside the judgment should not be accepted”
After securing the attendance of the accused I have observed that the court verify
his identity , read the charges and ask the accused if he have any objection to the
charge. In the case between public prosecutor versus Awol Mohammed and
Hassen Mekonnen 7 the accused were came from the Oromia special zone of
Amhara national regional state, they are suspected of committing the crime of
Homicide in Dessie Town. The court realized that reading the charge in Amharic
language will affect their constitutional right as both of them are not versed with
the Amharic language.
In this situation I observed that south Wollo zone high court selected qualified
court interpreter to read the charge by the language they understand (oromiffa).
And employ the interpreter for all stage of the proceeding. So in this regard the
court is securing the constitutional rights of the accused to be informed about the
charge instituted against them in the language they understand.
7
File no. 26450