Turkey: Progressive Lawyers Association Condemned Detention Of Its 2 Members

August 13, 2017

Lawyer Deniz YILDIRIM who is Antalya branch chair of CHD – Progressive Lawyers Association and Ramazan GOKALP were detained yesterday, in the province of Antalya. Antalya Prosecutorial Office ordered 7-day detention -including one day incommunicado- for two lawyers.

CHD-PLA condemned the detention warrant against its two members with a written statement. In the statement CHD-PLA said “Only purpose of this detention wave ..  is to annihilate the right to defense.”

The full statement as follows: 

“ÇHD Antalya Branch President Av. Deniz Yıldırım and Av. Ramazan Gökalp was taken into custody by the police in Antalya this morning, under guise of an investigation initiated a year ago. Our branch president Av. Deniz Yıldırım has repeatedly applied to the Prosecutor because of this investigation, to give her statement and defense. Nevertheless, the fact that the detention warrant was issued for them stands as a concrete example of the absence of the rule of law in the country.

Only purpose of this detention wave that follows the patronizing request of Ministry of Justice regarding prohibition of lawyers who attend the political cases is to annihilate the right to defense.

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Progressive Lawyers Association Condemned Detention Of Its 2 Members

Şube başkanımız ve meslektaşımızın bir an önce Adliyeye getirilmesi ve işlemlerin bizzat savcı tarafından yürütülmesi zorunludur. Avukatlar hakkında soruşturmalar hassasiyet ve özenle yürütülmelidir.

(Facebook)

ÇHD Antalya Şube Başkanı Av. Deniz YILDIRIM, aylardır haberdar olduğu ve defalarca savcıya ifade alması konusunda ısrar ettiği bir soruşturma nedeniyle gözaltında. Deniz’in sadece avukatlığı değil, siyasetçi kimliği de saldırı altında. Meslektaşımız yalnız değildir, ÇHD bütün geleneğiyle Deniz’in yanındadır.

(Facebook)

The Philippines: The lawyers taking on Duterte over his ‘war on drugs’

April 24, 2017

It was the most impressive delivery of justice Joel Butuyan had seen in his more than two decades of being a lawyer.

On January 26, human rights lawyers Gil Aquino and Cristina Antonio filed a petition before the Supreme Court of the Philippines seeking protection for Efren Morillo, the lone survivor of a police ambush that killed four alleged drug users in the name of President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”.

Only five days later, the petition was granted. It provided sweeping protections for Morillo and severely limited police activity near his home and workplace.

“It was a breath of fresh air considering the current atmosphere,” said Butuyan, a veteran human rights lawyer who supervised the filing of the petition along with his colleague, Romel Bagares. “People have this feeling of hopelessness, but there’s still a branch of government you can run to and seek protection.”

It was the first legal action on behalf of a victim of the government’s controversial anti-drugs campaign. Yet after more than 8,000 deaths, few cases have followed.

Rights groups said that many of the killings were assassinations of drugs users with police complicity, allegations the authorities have denied.

Butuyan is the president of the Centre for International Law, the human rights advocacy wing of his private firm, Roque & Butuyan. Last November, he put Aquino, 27,  and Antonio, 37, a former community organiser, in charge of what has become one of the highest-profile cases in the country. They have four years of legal experience between them.

With such responsibility comes considerable risk. A total of 86 lawyers have been killed in the Philippines since 1999, according to Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. They also frequently face threats and intimidation. Lawyers are therefore sometimes deterred from pursuing politically charged cases.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/04/lawyers-duterte-war-drugs-170406100150963.html

(N.B. The number of lawyers, judges, prosecutors and paralegals killed must be over 130 since 1999.)

http://www.salvaleforeste.it/en/blog/72-news-en/eco-justice/4267-philippines,-environmental-lawyer-killed,-112-killings-in-15-years.html

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/17/philippines-duterte-threatens-human-rights-community

Bangladesh: HC verdict on Narayanganj seven-murder Sunday; families want death sentences upheld

August 13, 2017

Families of the victims of Narayanganj seven-murder have demanded that the High Court upholds death sentences of 26 convicts for the sake of ensuring justice.

The High Court bench of Justice Bhabani Prasad Singha and Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam is set to deliver the verdict on the convicts’ appeals challenging the trial court judgment and their death references on Sunday.

Death sentences that trial courts issued are forwarded as death references to the High Court for approval.

The abduction and gruesome killing of seven people, including councillor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar from Narayanganj, three years ago, had shocked the nation.

The news hit the headlines in the international media later, when it emerged members of the elite police unit, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), were involved in the killings.

Former Narayanganj City Corporation councillor Nur Hossain and three former senior officers of the local RAB unit, including its then chief, former army lieutenant colonel Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, are among the 26 people awarded the death penalty for the 2014 sensational seven-murder.

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http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2017/08/13/hc-verdict-on-narayanganj-seven-murder-sunday-families-want-death-sentences-upheld

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/world/neighbours/160117/bangladesh-court-sentences-26-to-death-for-narayanganj-killings.html

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2014/04/30/senior-narayanganj-lawyer-chandan-sarkar-also-dead

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/19/after-narayanganj-verdict-bangladesh-should-disband-rab