The ICJ, member of the Jury of the Martin Ennals Foundation Award for Human Rights Defenders, announced today that Lida Yusupova has been selected as the winner of the 2004 Martin Ennals Award.
In a letter addressed to the Minister of Justice of Turkey, the Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers of the ICJ condemned the manifestly unfair trial proceedings in the re-trial of Kurdish former parliamentarians, Leyla Zana and three others.
Jura Hominis, the Italian Section of the ICJ is pleased to present the Motion of the Casa D’Europa of Milan regarding the establishment of the European prosecutor.
In a letter addressed to Putin, the ICJ urged the Russian Government to stop harassing Mr. Khodorkovskiy’s lawyer.
The ICJ demands the Russian authorities to immediately release a lawyer arrested on 24 October after police planted a firearm in his car.
Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin’s arrest and detention prevent him from representing relatives of one of the victims in the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings case.
“Planting evidence and arresting a person on that basis makes a mockery of the rule of law”, said Linda Besharaty-Movaed, ICJ Legal Advisor. “Trepashkin’s unlawful detention demonstrates that Russian lawyers can be arrested for discharging their professional duties”.
Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin was arrested on charges of “possession and transportation of an unlicensed firearm” after police officers openly threw a bag that contained a gun into his car.
In 2002, Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin worked as a consultant for a commission that investigated the 1999 bombings, which had been exclusively blamed on Chechen insurgents, and found that the Security Service had been complicit in the bombings.
Immediately after he presented his findings, the Military Prosecutor initiated proceedings against Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin for “disclosing classified information”. Even though he was indicted, his case laid dormant until September 2003, when a book reproduced some of his findings. Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin then won an indefinite postponement of the case from the Supreme Court.
Russia-lawyer arrest-press release-2003 (text, PDF)
Sudan: ICJ joins call to extend UN Fact-Finding Mission and strengthen accountability
ICJ hosts Johannesburg roundtable on the draft Crimes Against Humanity Treaty with the Malala Fund and other civil society actors
Kenya: ICJ co-hosts judicial dialogue on obstetric violence, human rights and the law
Libya: Authorities must promptly implement the Structured Dialogue’s human rights recommendations