“But he has made it clear - and I am satisfied - that he does not wish to be present at the hearing.” The judge said Abedi had been encouraged to have legal representation. In a letter to the court, the solicitors said Abedi did not “wish to be represented by us or any other firm of solicitors”.
Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said that Abedi had been visited by solicitors last month with a view to arranging legal representation.
Section 83(3) covers the case of a defendant who “having been informed of his right to apply for such representation and having had the opportunity to do so … refused or failed to apply”. Rule 25.2(1)(c) of the Criminal Procedure Rules 2015 says that a court must not sentence a defendant to imprisonment “unless the defendant has a legal representative … or the defendant could have been represented under legal aid but is not because section 83(3) of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 applies”. There are further complications if, as here, a defendant facing serious charges does not have a lawyer present at the sentencing hearing.
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On the other hand, a court must not proceed if the defendant is not present unless the court is satisfied that the accused person has waived the right to attend and the trial will be fair despite the defendant’s absence.Ībedi sacked his defence team part-way through his trial and refused to come to court. If an accused decides to disrupt the proceedings, the judge’s ultimate sanction is to order the defendant to be taken down to the court cells. The reason they cannot order the attendance of an unwilling defendant is presumably that there would be little to be gained by it. Abedi has been in custody since he was extradited from Libya last summer.īut judges have only the powers granted to them by law. It may seem strange that the judge can sentence Abedi to decades in prison but cannot order him to spend a couple of days in a courtroom. “You will … no doubt be aware,” he told the prosecutor, “that the court has no legal right to direct a prison officer to use force to compel a prisoner to attend court.”
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