| Rapports
sur les relations éthniques /
Reports on Ethnic Relations |
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The
following section is consisted of part, full or summaries of
articles from diverses sources (newspapers, newsletters, etc...).
La section suivante est constituée d'exraits, de la totalité
ou de résumés d'articles provenant d'origines
diverses (journaux,bulletins, etc..).
01 / 29 / 2004
IRIN
"Government
tries its judges for corruption"
The
government of Benin has put on trial 27 of its own judges on charges
of embezzling millions of dollars of state funds.
They
form part of a group of 99 court and finance ministry officials
charged with illegally pocketing more than US$15 million of state
funds over a period of four years.
The
case appears to indicate that the justice system in this small
West African country is rotten to the core. The defendants include
45 court clerks and judges from 12 of Benin's 13 district courts.
The
accused, who have been in detention since December 2001, made
brief court appearances on Tuesday and Wendesday during which
no plea was entered for them.
Proceedings
are due to resume on 5 February and the trial is expected to take
about three months.
In
2000, Finance Ministry officials began looking into the suspected
misuse of state funds which had been earmarked for investigations
and judicial inquiries.
They
exposed a corruption ring which allowed judges and magistrates
to order their accomplices in the Treasury to fraudulently release
state funds to them.
The
investigators concluded that more than eight billion CFA, the
equivalent of US $15 million, had been siphoned out of government
coffers in this way between 1996 and 2000.
The
successful organization of series of free and fair elections in
the 1990s cast Benin as a model of democracy in West Africa.
However,the
civil service remains riddled with corruption and many Beninois
are sceptical that this high profile trial will stop the rot.
It is hard to believe that the (judges of this) court will try
their colleagues in an impartial manner of a case of embezzlement
, one man watching the trial proceedings on Wednesday told IRIN.
However
the government insists that the trial will be transparent.
Everything has been done to ensure that the trial takes place
in total transparency , State Prosecutor Severine Lawson told
IRIN.
No one is above the law," Justice Ministry Dorothe Sossa
said. These judges have broken the law and they will be tried
like any other individual who breaks the law
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