Link to article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/26/car-war-crimes-trial-postponed-for-second-time
The first trial of a court established to prosecute war crimes in the Central African Republic’s conflict has been postponed for the second time. Paul Yakola, a lawyer for one of the defendants said “The lawyers for the defense and those for the civil parties have asked the court for a postponement because they feel that they are not ready.” The prosecution however does not agree with the defense. Prosecution feels that this postponement is being used as a tactic to delay the trial. The prosecutor Alain Wabibikaye said that they have been working beside the defense on this case for three years so it just doesn’t make sense that they suddenly need time now to gather themselves. Wabibikaye said that the defense has had access to the procedure the entire time, so why wait till now to gather themselves.
I agree with the prosecutor that the timing of asking for the postponement is a little weird. If they have been working on this case for three years, it just doesn’t make sense to me that the defense still isn’t prepared for trial. For the amount of time that they have had to prepare, I just don’t see how it is possible that they still are not ready for the trial to begin. With this trial involving suspects of a massacre killing 46, I would think that they would want to get this out of the way in order to give the suspects the punishment they deserve, and the suspects would want to get it out of the way to try and get freedom sooner.
This relates back to class through levels of analysis. On an Individual level, The defense is hoping that by postponing the trial more than it already has been it will have a positive outcome for their clients. That would individually benefit them and their clients. The prosecution is looking at this through a lens of after three years they just want to get the trial underway and stop postponing for silly reasons. Their best interest is to get the trial over with so that they can potentially get violent criminals off the street and keep people safer.