[2008.06.07] Do reform the justice system 尼日利亚司法改革

Nigeria
尼日利亚
Do reform the justice system
改革司法 当务之急

Jun 5th 2008 | ABUJA
From The Economist print edition
2008年6月5日 阿布贾
《经济学人》印刷版

Despite some advances, the justice system leaves much to be desired
尽管尼日利亚的司法体系得到一些改善，但人们将渴望的改革还有很多

Reuters/More rough than justice
路透社/如此野蛮，何谈公正？

YUSUF MUSA recently stood before a court—for only the second time since his arrest last July for alleged cheating, forgery and breach of trust. The former car dealer had been accused by a colleague of running off with two vehicles valued at 5m naira ($43,200). He spent a month in police custody, followed by four months in prison, before his request for bail was heard. It took 15,000 naira and two more days to complete the paperwork that his lawyer says “could [have been] done in a few hours—even if there is no electricity.” And that was after Mr Musa’s family had paid the police 100,000 naira in the expectation that a bribe would help reduce the charges. Mr Musa’s experience is more common than not in Nigeria’s justice system, though justice has been touted as one of the few institutional successes in Nigeria since its democracy was relaunched nearly a decade ago.
尤苏夫•穆萨最近受到一个法庭的审判——自去年七 月他因被指控欺骗、伪造以及不诚信而被捕后，这是他第二次就犯。他曾是一个汽车经销商，被他的一位同事控告携带总值为5百万奈拉（合43,200美元）的 两辆汽车而潜逃。他被警察关押了一个月，接着又被关进监狱达4个月之久，在这之后他才提出保释。警察收取了15,000奈拉并花费了两天的时间才把文件上 的工作做完，而他的律师表示，“这些事情（本）可以在数小时内完成——即使在缺电的情况下也能如此。”穆萨先生这样的结局，是其家人为了盼望能减轻指控而 向警察局塞了10万奈拉而换来的。尽管尼日利亚大约10年前重新开始实施民主后，就标榜其司法体制是少数成功的体制改革之一，但穆萨先生的经历在尼日利亚 的司法体制中却是一个司空见惯的例子。

In some respects, the system has indeed improved. Politicians once thought untouchable have been brought to trial for corruption. Election tribunals have offered some redress to those who voted in last year’s chaotic and rigged elections; so far, ten out of 36 governors have been told to step down. Corporate-responsibility lawsuits filed against multinational firms have been pursued through the courts, and President Umaru Yar’Adua’s vaunted emphasis on law and order has raised expectations. But it is in humdrum cases, such as Mr Yusuf’s, where no improvement has been seen.
在 某些方面，尼日利亚的司法体系确实得到了改善。那些曾经无法无天的政治家们也因腐败而受到审判。选举申述委员会因为去年那次受人为操纵而混乱不堪的选举对 投票人进行了补偿；到目前为止，36位州长中有10位已经被“通知”准备下台。矛头指向跨国企业的关于企业社会责任的诉讼也在各级法庭中如火如荼地实行了 审判，并且总统奥马鲁•亚拉杜瓦也夸下海口要对法律与社会秩序给予重点关注，因此也使得尼日利亚民众多了些期盼。但是，在处理象穆萨先生这样的日常案子上，却是毫无改进。

For most Nigerians, the shortcomings begin with the police. Those arrested are meant to hear the charges against them within 24 hours, but many languish for days in overcrowded cells, awaiting charges. Lacking the means to conduct proper investigations, the police often make do with signed confessions after brutal interrogations. Uju Agomoh, founder of Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, a pressure group, says that in nearly 20 years she has never seen a prisoner who has not suffered physical or psychological torture by the police.
对大多数尼日利亚人来说，首当其冲的不良体制就表现在警察部门。被抓获的嫌疑犯本该在24小时内接 受审讯，但是许多人要在人满为患的牢房里蹉跎数日，等待聆讯。由于缺乏适当的查案方式，尼日利亚的警察通常对嫌疑人进行残忍的审讯后就拿着模棱两可的招供 去交差。一个压力集团——囚犯复原与福利行动组织的创始人乌巨•阿葛莫讲道，在几乎20年里，她所见到的囚犯，无一没有受到警察对其施行的身体或心理摧 残。

Many of those arrested never have their cases investigated at all. “Often these arrests are not done with a view to taking the person through the criminal-justice process,” says Innocent Chukwuma, whose Cleen Foundation (formerly the Centre for Law Enforcement Education) researches criminal justice. “They are done with a view to extort and harass.” He estimates that just 5% of those arrested ever end up in court. Many are extracted from police custody only by bribes.
对于那些被捕的 罪犯，他们中许多人的案子根本就没有进行调查。“通常情况下，警察对这些人的逮捕并没有通过正常的罪犯审判程序来执行，”伊诺森特•图科乌玛讲道。（他掌 管的前身为法律强制性教育中心的克林基金会专事于研究犯罪审判）“他们只是通过强行逼供与严刑折磨才达到目的。”据他估计，被捕的人中仅仅有5%是在法院 上裁决的。许多人都是通过贿赂才从警察的拘留下人间蒸发。

So those who cannot pay linger in prison. Nigeria’s 144 prisons have an official capacity of 25,000 but now hold almost twice that number, according to one report. Ikoyi prison in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, was built for just 800 inmates; now it has over 2,000, with 20-30 new ones arriving every day. Conditions are abysmal, disease rampant, medicine basic. Inmates can wait months or years for a trial that may never happen; some 25,000 people are now in this limbo and few have lawyers to defend them.
因此， 那些拿不出钱的只能在牢房里岌岌度日了。另据一份报告指出，尼日利亚拥有144所监狱，以官方的设计，这些监狱只能容下25,000囚犯，但如今监禁的囚 犯人数却多了一倍。位于尼日利亚商业首都拉各斯的伊科以监狱，以其建筑规模只能容下800人囚犯；如今其人数也已经超过了2000人，而且每天还会新到 20-30位菜鸟。这些监狱的环境极为糟糕——疾病蔓延，所拥有的药物也只能治愈一些小病。囚犯在监狱里要熬上数月甚至数年才能等到一次审判，而这可能永 远也不会出现；目前，25000囚犯仍被监禁在狱中，而且极少人会有律师为他们辩护。

Campaigners say it is hard to blame individuals for such systemic failings. The police force doubled between 1999 and 2004 but got little extra money for training or facilities. The prison service, the lowliest of the law-enforcement agencies, is shabbily treated. Salaries are often so meagre and paid so late that charities working in prisons sometimes offer food and soap to warders as well as inmates. The Legal Aid Council does not receive its meagre budget on time.
参选人讲道，你很难拿体制上的问题去责备个别部门。警察力量在1999年与2004年间，其人数翻 了一倍，但却几乎没有多余的资金进行一些职能上的培训或购买必需的办案设施。作为国家法律执行机构中最低级的监狱部门更是受到了寒酸的待遇。工资如此之 低，其发放也是一拖再拖，以至于活动于各个监狱的慈善团体有时还要给囚犯甚至典狱长发配食物与肥皂。而法律援助委员会连这些少之又少的资金预算也无法按时 收到。

None of this is a secret. A dozen committees have met and published recommendations to decongest prisons, curb arbitrary arrests and speed up trials. The Ministry of Justice talks often and earnestly of reform. But past recommendations have been neither paid for nor implemented. “Losing a person to prison is worse than losing a family member to death,” says Etannibi Alemika, a former chairman of one of those many ineffectual committees. “With death, there is a sense of dignity. But when a husband is sent to prison for ten years, it stigmatises the family. They have to erase the capacity to mention his name.”
所有这些都是大家心知肚明的。据了解，一批大大小小的国家委员会进行了会晤并向外发布了一系列的建议，旨在减轻监狱的负担、控制任意 的逮捕以及加速审判的过程。尼日利亚司法部经常也很动真格地讲道要采取改革措施。但以前的那些建议不但没有受到重视，也没有执行。“对一个家庭来说，一个 成员蹲牢房比他死亡更糟糕，”艾坦尼比•阿雷米卡讲道。（阿雷米卡是那些效率低下的委员会的之一的前主席）“面对死亡，人至少还留有尊严。但一位女人的丈 夫要入狱10年，这对整个家庭都是一种耻辱。家人们不得不在未来的生活中只字不提他的名字。”

译者： jerrywhitt    http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=11913&extra=page%3D1&page=1