Saturday 18 August 2007

AAE 91: some legal terms

Hi Matt,

When reading newspapers I often bump into these expressions:

to be detained (on?) st and to be remanded

which have the same meanings, don´t they?
If not, what is the difference please?

to detain is to force someone officially to stay in a place:
A suspect has been detained by the police for further questioning.
Several of the injured were detained overnight in hospital.

to remand is to transfer (a prisoner) to the custody of another court or other official agency or institution to await further proceedings:
He was remanded on theft charges.
The accused was remanded in custody (= kept in prison before the trial began) for a week.

However I would say that often they are used in a similar way.



And is there a difference between these expressions?:

to be charged with st and to be accused of st

I´m a bit confused about this..

to charge is to make a formal statement saying that someone is accused of a crime:
She's been charged with murder.
She is charged with murdering her husband.


to accuse is to to say that someone has done something morally wrong, illegal or unkind:
"It wasn't my fault." "Don't worry, I'm not accusing you."
He's been accused of robbery/murder.
Are you accusing me of lying?
The surgeon was accused of negligence.

To be charged is to be 'officially' accused of a crime.


Thanks for help,
Marki

I hope this helps

Thanks

M

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