and sick people, for instance. He appealed to the judges to expedite the trial of those on remand. However, the legal vacation set matters further back. THURSDAY 26 AUGUST 1999 Prosecutor General, Court ofAppeal, Cotonou (Madam Bernadette Kodjovie) I n response to my inquiry about her office, the Prosecutor General explained as follows. She has the responsibility for co-ordinating the work of all prosecutors in Benin. Each Tribunal of First Instance has one prosecutor, and there are eight such Tribunals in the country. The work of the "parquet" (office of the prosecutor) extends beyond penal matters to civil, commercial and administrative cases. The Prosecutor General plays a prominent role in the "Cour d'assise" which tries serious offences. She presents the evidence and suggests the sentence. Consequently her office is represented at each trial at the "Cour d'assise" by either herself or an assistant. Nineteen magistrates work for the prosecution in Benin. Each prosecutor has an assistant. The Prosecutor General saw her work as essentially that of protection of human rights. Having also been a member of the Supreme Court for four years, she was personally concerned with and interested in human rights issues. I raised with the Prosecutor General (PG) some problems which I had noted on my mission. Remand was too long with some stretching to 12 years. Old male prisoners, too weak to cause harm to anyone, awaited death in their cells. There were prisoners who were seriously ill, but had no medical care. I also suggested that Benin could follow the example of Nigeria under General Abdulsalami, where amnesty was granted to a large number of prisoners on the basis of the recommendations of a Committee which visited prisons in Nigeria. Decongestion of the prisons and improvement in prison conditions from the application of the saved expenditure on the released prisoners would be advantages which would result from the suggested amnesty. In response the PG stated that Prosecutors met regularly to discuss problems. Just the previous week the question of the forty-eight hours limit to detention without trial engaged the attention of the Prosecutors. It was resolved that prosecutors 22 23