Ajoda

The Tiɤešmen n Ansah, headquarters of the Ajoda where public executions were once held in the Second Empire

The Inquisition of the Republic of Charnea (Tamashek: ⴰⵊⵧⴷⴰ ⵏ ⴰⵊⴰⵎⵀⵓⵔⵢⴰ ⵏ ⵞⴰⵔⵏⴻⴰ, Ajoda n Ajamhurya n Charnea) commonly known as the Ajoda is the investigative component of the inquisitorial justice system applied in Charnea. The Ajoda is a component of the judiciary of Charnea but is distinct from the main body of the judiciary that broadly adjudicates criminal and civil cases. A magistrate of the Ajoda, called an Amutar (Inquisitor), directs the pre-trial investigation and establishment of the facts of the case. Amutars serve both an investigative and screening in relation to the information acquired from police, laywitnesses and expert witnesses, and preside over matters of fact. They are distinct from the Alqadi (Judge), the trial magistrate that acts as arbiter between the prosecution and defense, resolving procedural issues and presiding over matters of law. Both types of magistrate may be present or absent in different parts of the Charnean legal system depending on the type of legal proceeding and other circumstances. Generally, regulatory and summary offences can be handled by an Inquisitor alone, while more serious criminal offenses will more likely feature both an Inquisitor in the role of prosecutor and a Judge in the role of trial arbiter. Civil cases are universally adjudicated by Judges as the plaintiffs in a civil case are wholly responsible for producting evidence of wrongdoing by the respondent, making the role of the Inquisitor unnecessary. Juries are used circumstantially only in major criminal cases, and is used to corroborate matters of fact brought to the court by the Inquisitor as well as matters of law in conjunction with the trial Judge. As seen across the Charnean court system, the Ajoda faced a significant reshuffling of its personnel in the aftermath of the Muttay Ajamhuryin, with a large number of magistrates being purged from the judiciary. The resulting staffing issues within the system have slowed down the rate of adjudication of cases in the straining Charnean justice system. The legal schools within the Republic are unable to fill the major gaps in staff that have appeared as a result of political purges at the top levels, motivating the Charnean government to begin training of foreign lawyers to serve as replacement Amutars and Alqadis to patch the holes in the system.

Overview

The Ajoda function as the first stage of all criminal proceedings in the Charnean legal system. Their function as the investigative wing of the court places the Ajoda in the position of gatekeepers to the rest of the criminal justice system, as all criminal cases from the most minor to the most severe must first pass through the Ajoda before any other proceedings can take place. Cases may come to the Ajoda by way of local police forces that issue a report of a crime and volunteer information that may have been gathered through their own investigation, or through the victims themselves who may issue a criminal complaint directly to the offices of the Ajoda. Once in the Ajoda's hands, an Inquisitor will lead the investigation into the facts of the case and attempt to establish all of the relevant points of fact and clarify any ambiguity and unresolved queries. Officers of the Ajoda may press the police or third parties for information through discovery, produce witnesses, and interview witnesses brought forward by either the Ajoda, other prosecuting offifical or the lawyer for the defense. The Inquisitor presiding over a case also plays the role of filter, determining what may be entered into the court as evidence and testing the fitness of any testimony, material evidence, or expert testimony. Particularly in the case of witnesses and experts, the Ajoda plays a gatekeeping function in preventing bogus or unreliable testimony from entering the court. The Ajoda may be alternatively described as a body dedicated to voir-dire and evidentiary hearings. Because of the Ajoda's bottleneck role in the judicial system in Charnea, the body is considered critical to the expeditious adjudication of all matters of criminal law and is therefore prioritized in funding and in recruitment of more Inquisitors is seen as vital to the continued operation of the justice system.

History

The Ajoda was originally established in the mid 15th century under the first Empire of Charnea, when the Agraw Imgharan implimented the first standard legal code over all of Charnea in an effort to rationalize the diverse system of laws and legal customs in place across the different regions of Charnea. Under its original usage during the first Empire, the Ajoda was significantly more powerful, and its magistrates effectively served as investigator, prosecutor and trial judge all one. The Ajoda was a significant modernization of the tribal justice system of pre-Ihemodian times in the Ninva desert, and represented the first time a standardized system of justice had been implimented over much of the Scipian hinterland territory. Consequently, the Ajoda played a significant role in the modernization and centralization of the Charnean Empire and served as the primary vehicle by which the dictates of Agnannet would be carried out and enforced across the remote desert settlements and conquered territories alike.

Reform

The harshness of the early Ajoda in part contributed to the collapse of the first Charnean Empire, leading to significant reforms of the Ajoda by the restored Second Empire, which implimented the so-called "twin-magistrate system" used by the modern Charnean judiciary, with distinct Judges and Inquisitors, a degree of seperation between the Ajoda and the rest of the judiciary, and the introduction of a system of oversight over the Inquisitors' investigations by the Ajoda itself as well as higher judges and execuitive officials. The twin mahistrate system has remained intact through the centuries of use by the Second Empire and succesfully survived the transition into the modern Third Empire with relatively little structural change.

Inquisitorial Law

The Ajoda operate according to the Law of Evidence established by the Agraw Imgharan and used as a universal standard dictating the validity of evidence. The role of any Inquisitor is to interpret and apply the Law of Evidence to any ongoing investigation, and learning this law and its evidentiary rules is the main focus of the legal education required to serve as an Inquisitor of the Ajoda. Estbalished within the law itself are provisions which give Inquisitors leeway to operate in grey areas of the law and to operate based on precedent rather than the civil code wherever the code is lacking, giving the Ajoda a secondary role in shaping the application of the law beneath that of the Agraw Imgharan which establishes the codes themselves. In case of apparent Inquisitorial misconduct, misapplication or violation of the Law of Evidence by an Inquisitor, the matter is usually appealed before the trial Judge by the defense team in important criminal cases. Where there is no trial Judge present, or where Inquisitorial issues transcend any one case, the Law of Appeals establishes the mechanism by which legal complaints may be brought before the courts and Inquisitorial rulings overturned, usually by another Inquisitor or by a panel of administrative Judges.