The Attorney General announced that it has made decisions about pressing charges on 98% of the files given to them by police over the last five months. Berhanu Tsegaye, Attorney General, told the parliament that among the 304 transboundary crime files sent to the office 232 had been decided on by the Office. There were 894 Economic Crimes and 686 (81%) were decided on, there were 1755 corruption crime files and 1655(94%) were decided on and there were 17,213 miscellaneous crimes files and 17,109(99.4%) were decided on. The office also issued new licenses. Out of the 235 lawyers who applied 178 were accepted. If a lawyer has a level one license they can try cases in all Federal Courts. The office gave out 129 of these licenses. They also gave out 49 licenses which allow lawyers to try cases in Federal First Instance Courts. The office was able to renew 1,363 existing licenses but 55 applicants were not able to pass the exam so they were denied the license.
The Attorney’s Discipline Board has reviewed 231 complaints and convicted 116 lawyers, while 18 were acquitted, in the past five months. The discipline was unable to rule on 97 other discipline breaches.
Currently, 4,325 lawyers work in the federal justice system, according to Attorney General, Brhanu.
Free legal aid was facilitated for 444 needy people through the Office by Lawyers while 260 are women, 2 are children, 46 youth, and 26 people with disabilities and 37 elderly.
He also revealed the budget usage ratio by the office for the past five months.
The Attorney General said it was difficult to prosecute suspected human rights violators and those accused of corruption because they did not get the corporation desired from the Tigray Regional State. He mentioned that the federal government asked that the former intelligence head be handed over, but the region failed to do so.