The Office of the Ombudsman stressed commitment to ensuring that its work within the criminal justice system meet the requirements clearly stipulated in the decree of its establishment. It also stressed keenness to ensure investigation procedures are in tune with the best international practices in this respect.

The statement was made on the occasion of releasing the fourth annual report (2016-2017) which details complaints received and their sources as well as statistical factors related to them. The report showed that around 60% of the 1156 complaints received were requests for assistance. it also revealed that 348 complainants were female, 761 male and 47 from local and international human rights organisations.

The report also pointed out a decrease by 73% in the number of complaints which contain allegations on gross violations compared to last year (2015-2016), adding that those allegations were probed and the Special Investigation Unit was notified.

The report included this year for the first time statistics on the performance of the internal auditing and investigation directorate which specialises in receiving complaints about a wrongdoing by any of the Interior Ministry affiliates through personal presence at its premises, police offices or the hotline.

The report also affirmed that the Office of the Ombudsman has followed up on the training programmes of the Interior Ministry personnel which covered many key issues like best practices in dealing with the public and application of police professional criteria in addition to legal training and raising awareness of the police officers.

The Office of the Ombudsman thanked the Interior Ministry and the specialised directorates at it for the constant support to the office and praised cooperation of the ministries and institutions which has boosted effectiveness in serving the public.

Source: Fana News