Ajoda

The Inquisition of the Empire of Charnea (Tamashek: ⴰⵊⵧⴷⴰ ⵏ ⵉⵜⴰⴽⵧⵔⴰⵏ ⵏ ⵛⴰⵔⵏⴻⴰ, Ajoda n Itakoran 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 judicary 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. Imutars 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 prosection 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.

Overview

The Ajoda functionas 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.

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 harshness of the early Ajoda in part contributed to the War of Charnean Succesion, leading to significant reforms of the Ajoda by the Okha Dynasty rulers, 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-magistrate system, and indeed the Imperial system of civil law itself, was thrown out following the Charnean Revolution in favor of a common-law system based on the precedent set by judges themselves rather than the standard code set by a powerful legislative entity like the Imperial Agraw Imgharan, for which the Charnean Confederation had no equivalent. Law become variable between provinces, as local judges would set local precedents not applicable to the rest of the country, and the confederal nature of the country prevented standardization. More centralization in the legal system occured after the transition from Confederation to Republic, but the system remained within a common law framework. The twin-magistrate system and an altered form of the Imperial code was not re-introduced anywhere in Charnea until 2016, after the seizure of the north of the country by the Veiled Brotherhood and its parent organization, the Cobalt Square. While much of the territory held by this group remained under martial law for much of the Transition Conflict, certain cities and rural communities came under the civil code and became testing grounds for the formation of what was to become the new Charnean justice system. Charnean lawyers, as well as foreign lawyers from the Mutul, Latium, and others were trained to staff the judiciary and the Ajoda during the ensuring years prior to the Empire Day, December 10th 2021, when the Second Empire was officially established over all of Charnea, national martial law was lifted, and the Imperial code, twin-magistrate system and the Ajoda came into force over all Charnean jurisidctions.