Vehicle Used for Coffee Smuggling
Your Car, Their Crime: The Legal Issues of Owning a Car Used for Smuggling Coffee
Picture getting a call that your truck, which you rented out just last week, has been taken at a checkpoint. What is the cargo? A big, unreported shipment of illegal coffee. The driver is in jail, but the police want to know more about you, the owner. This situation, which happens more often than most people think, raises a complicated legal question: what is the criminal responsibility of someone who owns a vehicle that is stopped while carrying illegal goods?
Abstract Vehicle Used for Coffee Smuggling
A person who owns a vehicle apprehended transporting illegal coffee is punished by a fine of Birr 50,000 and an imprisonment of three to five years under Article 15(6) of the Federal Coffee Quality Control and Marketing Proclamation. The wording of the provision and different interpretation rules indicate that the crime is a strict or/and a vicarious criminal liability offence that punishes a person without the need for proving his guilty mind or guilty act. In practice, however, it is interpreted and applied inconsistently. Where some courts apply it as the direct meaning of the provision suggests, other courts penalize an owner of a vehicle apprehended transporting illegal coffee only where he carries out the illegal act personally. Furthermore, Article 23(6) of the Oromia Coffee Quality Control and Marketing Proclamation, which is intended to facilitate the implementation of the previous provision, conveys indefinite meanings as to the criminal responsibility of a person who owns a vehicle apprehended transporting illegal coffee. Hence, it further complicates the problem. Moreover, the provisions are encroaching on the fundamental human rights and the uniform application of the basic criminal principles in the country. In view of that, this article recommends that the Federal Legislature and Caffee Oromia should reconsider the criminal responsibility of a person who owns a vehicle apprehended transporting illegal coffee and reset the liability that goes with the spirit of the FDRE Constitution and the Criminal Code.
Crafting Informative and Cohesive Body Content. Vehicle Used for Coffee Smuggling
INTRODUCTION
Coffee trade, which creates extensive job opportunities for Ethiopians and massively supports the economy of the country, is heavily affected by coffee quality problems and unlawful transactions. To reduce the factors that hold-down the income derived from coffee trade, the Federal Government of Ethiopia enacted Coffee Quality Control and Marketing Proclamation, [1][2] Regulation [3][4] and Directive [5] that aim at sufficiently supplying quality and competitive coffee to the global market. Pursuant to Article 12(4) of the Coffee Quality Control and Marketing Proclamation (hereinafter called the Federal Coffee Proclamation) any person who owns a vehicle or his agent is responsible to ensure the legality of coffee to be transported.
Failed to discharge the obligation is punishable
Accordingly if a vehicle is apprehended transporting illegal coffee,[6] the owner of the vehicle or the agent who failed to discharge the obligation is punishable. Imprecisely, however, Article 15(6) of the Proclamation stipulates that any person who owns a vehicle apprehended transporting illegal coffee shall be penalized by fine and imprisonment. This provision fails to clarify the elements of the crime it establishes and the circumstance under which a person who owns a vehicle apprehended transporting illegal coffee is made criminally liable. The imprecision of the provision made legal practitioners interpret and apply the provision in contradictory ways.
transporting illegal coffee without proving fault
Some of them penalize a person who owns a vehicle apprehended transporting illegal coffee without proving fault and others penalize only where vehicle owners willfully or negligently allow their vehicle engage in illegal coffee transportation. The two differing decisions hold water independently. Where the first stand goes in line with other provisions of the proclamation and the circumstances under which it was promulgated, the second one concurs straightforwardly with the general criminal law principles enshrined in the FDRE Criminal Code.
Article 19(3) of the proclamation authorizes regional states to issue laws necessary for the implementation of the proclamation. Pursuant to this authorization, (it can be argued that) Oromia Regional State promulgated a Coffee Quality Control and Marketing Proclamation[1] (hereinafter called the Oromia Coffee Proclamation). Article 23(6) of the proclamation establishes a criminal responsibility of an owner of a vehicle apprehended transporting illegal coffee in ambiguous wordings. It connects the subject of the sentence (an owner of a vehicle and a driver) with a conjunctive, ‘and’.
But it puts the next coming verb in singular. The subject-verb disagreement of the sentence made the provision render different and dissimilar meanings. All the possible meanings of the provision apparently stand inconsistent with Article 15(6) of the Federal Coffee proclamation. Accordingly, this article assesses the meanings, applications and significances of the criminal responsibility of a person who owns a vehicle apprehended transporting illegal coffee under the Federal and Oromia Coffee Proclamations. It also evaluates the conformity of the liability with the basic criminal law principles.
Refference
- [1] Proclamation Enacted to Decide Procedure of Coffee Quality Control and Coffee Trade in Oromia, Proclamation No. 160/2010.
- [2] Coffee Quality Control and Marketing Proclamation No. 602/2008.
- [3] Coffee Quality Control and Transaction, Council of Ministers Regulation No. 161 2009
- FDRE Proclamation No.1051 /2017 Coffee Marketing and Quality Control Proclamation
- This Regulation implements provisions of the Coffee Quality Control and Marketing Proclamation and provides rules relative to transactions in coffee and coffee by-products in Ethiopia.
- Lawyer Hasen Mh Firm FDRE Laws Archive
Powerful Closures: Leaving a Lasting Impression
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