96. In most of the cases brought up in these communications (paras. 3,4,5,9,10,11), the accused either had no access or had restricted access to lawyers, and the latter had insufficient time to prepare the defence of their clients. This constitutes a violation of article 7,1(c) on the right to defence. 97. The right to defence should also be interpreted as including the right to understand the charges being brought against oneself. In the trial on the September Manifesto (para. 3), only 3 of the 21 accused persons spoke Arabic fluently, and this was the language used during the trial. This means that the 18 others did not have the right to defend themselves; this also constitutes a violation of article 7,1(c). 98. The Section responsible for matters relating to State Security in the Special Tribunal is headed by a senior military officer who is not required to have a legal training. He is assisted by two assessors, both military men. The Special Tribunal is itself presided by an army officer. In the joint procedure on communications 139/94, 154/96 and 161/97 (International Pen, Constitutional Rights Project, Interights and Civil Liberties Organisation vs/ Nigeria), the Commission reached the conclusion that the “Special Military Tribunals …constituted a violation of article 7,1 (d) of the Charter by the very virtue of their composition, which is reserved to the discretion of the executive organ”. Withdrawing criminal procedure from the competence of the Courts established within the judicial order and conferring onto an extension of the executive necessarily compromises the impartiality of the Courts, to which the African Charter refers. Independent of the qualities of the persons sitting in such jurisdictions, their very existence constitutes a violation of the principles of impartiality and independence of the judiciary and, thereby, of article 7,1 (d). 99. Article 26 of the Charter states that: States parties to the present Charter shall have the duty to guarantee the independence of the Courts... 100. By establishing a section responsible for matters relating to State security within the Special Tribunal, the Mauritanian State was reneging on its duty to guarantee the independence of the courts. The Commission therefore concludes that there has been violation of article 26. 101. Article 9,2 of the Charter stipulates that: Every individual shall have the right to express and disseminate his opinions within the law. 102. Communication 61/91 alleges that the trials on the Manifesto (paras. 3,4,5,6) and the other related cases (paras. 8 and 9) violate the right to freedom of expression and dissemination of ones’ opinions, to the extent that the accused were charged with distributing a manifesto which provided statistics on racial discrimination and were calling for a dialogue with the government. The expression “within the laws” 18