The Dire Dawa City Court has civil and petty criminal jurisdictions. Almost all cases are finally disposed of in the Appellate Court. In principle, an appeal lies to the Cassation division of the Federal Supreme Court on matters of law.
The City Police was not willing to participate in this research.
The breakdown of civil and criminal cases in the City Court is unknown. The data provided were inconsistent and are not relied on. The total cases reported for the year (2367) were almost all disposed of by the court (2217), suggesting a disposal rate by the 2 judges to be averaging over a 12 month period, 92 cases disposed per judge per month.
In the Appellate court the data are inconsistent and show a total caseload of 63 cases, 5 of which are reported to have been disposed of in the course of the year. The cases reportedly carried forward appear unreliable on the face of the figures. During validation, it was communicated that 43 cases were appealed from the Social Courts. However these are not recorded in the data provided for the Appellate court.
The case data show 1308 cases pending from the previous year and 2240 new cases (while prosecutors deal with civil cases as well as criminal, these are usually a small part of the caseload, so it is assumed a significant majority of these cases are criminal in nature), of which 2642 were disposed (producing an average disposal rate of 73 cases per month per prosecutor).
Caseload is heavy with almost 50,000 cases in the past year. While it is assumed the majority are civil in nature, the breakdown of civil and criminal cases could not be clarified and so the case figures are not recorded.
POLICE
Police did not participate in the research
OAG
City prosecutors record disposing of 2642 cases disposed as follows: convicted: 1223 – acquitted: 43 – settled: 570 – dismissed: 806.
SOCIAL COURT
Case figures (civil and criminal) were inconsistent with the total number of cases provided and are not relied on.
Total new cases given: 48,995 (civil and criminal).
Total cases disposed: 48,794 (civil and criminal)
Total cases appealed: 43
Total cases carried forward: 201
CITY COURT
Case figures (civil and criminal) were inconsistent with the total number of cases provided and are not relied on (as with Social Courts above).
Total new cases (civil and criminal): 2367
Total disposed: 2217
Total carried forward: 150
APPELLATE COURT
Data mismatch: total cases carried forward inconsistent with preceding data.
New data communicated during validation stated 43 cases were appealed from the Social Courts in the past 12 months but these are not reflected in the new appeal cases registered.