The police received 1,456 complaints during the year and were able to investigate them all. This resulted in 1,236 investigations being forwarded to the OAG. 125 investigations pertained to reports of GBV and they were all forwarded to the OAG. There was no data on any juveniles arrested.
The OAG had 16,249 investigations pending from the previous year, and opened another 4,207 during the course of the year. Note that this figure is considerably higher than the number of investigations forwarded by the police. Charges were filed in 1,747 cases, and 336 of those cases were categorized as GBV cases – again the figure is far greater than the number of GBV cases forwarded by the police. There is no data on how many, if any, juveniles were charged. OAG data indicates a conviction rate of over 77% in Benishangul-Gumuz. Less than 2% of criminal cases that were prosecuted by the OAG ended in an acquittal. The OAG reported that 172 of the GBV cases ended in a conviction, amounting to a conviction rate of 51%.
There were 5,243 new criminal cases filed in the RFIC and 1,386 in the RHC. Note that these numbers are considerably higher than the number of cases in which the OAG is reported to have framed charges. The disposal rate was very high. There was no data on the disposal of neither GBV nor juvenile cases.
The regular courts received 7,610 new civil cases, while the Sharia courts received 985. Again the disposal rate was high at well over 100% for both the regular courts and Sharia courts. This implies that there were some pending cases at the beginning of the year, although there was no data on any pending cases.
The Office of the Public Defender received 247 cases and there is no data on how many were disposed. If seen in the context of the 6,885 criminal cases that were filed in all courts, the Public Defender was able to represent accused persons in about 3.6% of cases. As there were 7 Public Defenders, this suggests that, on average, each Public Defender was able to dispose of about 35 cases in a year, or about 3 in a month. In the same period, an NGO in Asosa, with one lawyer, provided legal aid services 201 in cases. In Metekel and Asosa there are also University Legal Clinics. In Asosa the Clinic handled 33 cases. However, due to conflict in Metekel, that clinic had no staff and could not operate.
Case management data was not centrally organized and was hence incomplete and unreliable.
OAG
Police record 1236 files sent to the PP with 125 GBV cases (v 336 the PPP charged)
Data anomaly: cases carried forward (177) inconsistent with previous data – ending (16249) + new (4207) less charged (1747)
RFIC
Data anomaly: cases disposed (5602) exceed pending + new (5243) and record 363 carried forward. Unclear where these cases come from.
RHC
Data anomaly: cases disposed (1650) exceed pending + new (1386) and record 123 carried forward. Unclear where these cases come from.
RSC
Data mismatch: pending (76) + new (256) – disposed (254) = 78
ULCs
Data mismatch: pending (2) + new (33) – disposed (34) = 1
PRISONS
Data contained multiple internal mismatches: unreliable. See Baseline data.
RFIC
Data anomaly: disposed cases (6695) exceed pending + new (6349)
RHC
Data anomaly: disposed cases (1200) exceed pending + new (976)
RSC
Data mismatch: pending (66) + new (285) minus disposed (279) = 72
SSC
Data anomaly: disposed cases (54) exceed pending + new (52)