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.
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)
The ICJ’s Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers demands the Russian authorities to immediately release a lawyer arrested on 24 October after police planted a firearm in his car.
The international community is failing to do enough to monitor and prevent abuses arising from the fight against terrorism, according to speakers at an international conference sponsored by the ICJ on 23-24 October.
The use of Military Commissions for Afghani prisoners of war held at Guantanamo Bay will be used in future as a precedent by military regimes to justify further abuses of human rights.
The failure of the Australian Government to condemn the proposed Military Commissions proposed by the US is a further serious erosion of human rights,” said Steve Mark, Chairman of the Council of the Australian Section of the International Commission of Jurists.
Australia-government stance Guantanamo Bay-press release-2003-eng (full text, PDF)
Joint Statements: Negotiations on the Convention on Crimes against Humanity
Iran: immediately stop mass killings of protestors and other atrocities and end impunity
Kazakhstan: Drop licence revocation proceedings against lawyer Adam Murat
Türkiye: ICJ welcomes acquittal of Istanbul Bar Association leadership and urges an end to the criminalization of the legal profession