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Terrorism By Jibril Adan

Western countries have been accused of double standards in dealing with crimes across international borders. Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister, Ms Martha Karua, lashed out at developed nations, whom she accused of not doing enough to help repatriate wealth stolen from poor nations and stashed in their banks.

"Drug-related crimes and terrorism, especially through the eyes of some nations, is given special attention," she said. The minister wants corruption treated like terrorism. Karua said there was a link between corruption, money laundering and terrorism.

She told delegates at the 15th Commonwealth Law Conference that the current Government had not won the war against corruption but the efforts must be kept alive. The minister said the efforts had not yielded fruit because it was also politicised and lawyers were helping suspects to delay cases against them. "The challenges are many, but defeat will not be an option," she said.

Karua added that the public’s lack of understanding of the war against corruption was also hampering the efforts. Whenever suspects are confronted with charges of corruption, they make their community believe it is a move against all of them, she said. Karua said one of the biggest challenges facing anti-corruption efforts was the filing of frivolous applications by suspects’ lawyers to delay cases.

She said a way should be devised to ensure graft cases are disposed of fast. Karua said the Government would take up a suggestion by a Nigerian delegate that his country had a law that banned frivolous applications in graft cases. Karua also said anti-graft agencies lacked enough skilled personnel.

The President of the African Institute of International and Comparative Law, Mr Nashon Fitzwanga, who talked to The Standard, supported the minister’s request for lawyers’ support in fighting graft. "Lawyers should balance the interest of the individual client against that of the public," he said. Fitzwanga said despite the principle of client confidentiality, lawyers had an obligation not to stand in the way of public interest.