Accordingly, the question of visits by human rights monitors remains undefined. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile Legal procedures, for the most part patterned after U.S. law, provide for due process, which is carefully observed. There is no governmental use of exile for political purposes. The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary, and it is independent in practice. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Congress.
Public trial is provided for in the Bill of Rights, and trials are conducted fairly.
Juveniles may have closed hearings. Despite these provisions, cultural resistance to litigation and incarceration as methods of maintaining public order have allowed some to act with impunity. Serious cases of sexual and other assault and even murder have not gone to trial, and suspects are routinely released indefinitely. There were no reports of political prisoners. The law prohibits such arbitrary interference, and in practice there is none.