Pakistan: Woman lawyer killed in firing in Punjab’s Hafizabad

January 11, 2019

A lawyer was killed Friday morning when unidentified assailants opened fire in Punjab’s Hafizabad.

According to the police, the incident occurred on Kassoki Road. They have identified the victim as Naila Amjad, a public prosecutor at the civil court.

She was leaving her house with her husband to go to the gym when the assailants opened fire.

Related: University student, 12-year-old domestic worker murdered in Lahore’s Nawankot

She was taken to the nearby hospital’s trauma centre where she succumbed to her injuries.

The police don’t know why she was targetted and have begun investigating the incident.

The district bar association has called for two days of mourning.

https://www.samaa.tv/news/2019/01/female-lawyer-killed-in-firing-in-punjabs-hafizabad/

https://dunyanews.tv/en/Crime/473873-Senior-lawyer-shot-dead-Hafizabad

https://www.dawn.com/news/1457065/woman-public-prosecutor-shot-dead-in-hafizabad

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1886370/1-broad-daylight-civil-court-prosecutor-shot-dead/

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1886370/1-broad-daylight-civil-court-prosecutor-shot-dead/

Zimbabwe/Swaziland: Mnangagwa tried to deport Beatrice Mtetwa

January 11, 2019

President Emmerson Mnangagwa led a ZANU PF election war room team that tried to deport to prominent Human Rights Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa to her country of birth Swaziland during the height of the 2013 harmonised election campaign.

This was revealed by exiled Professor Jonathan Moyo in an expose’ on Econet Boss Strive Masiyiwa on Thursday.

Said Moyo, ” The full 2013 poll group had: Emmerson Mnangagwa (who chaired it), Dr Sydney Sekeramayi, Patrick Chinamasa (deputy chair), Nicholas Goche, Gen Constantino Chiwenga, Augustine Chihuri, Happyton Bonyongwe, Walter Tapfumaneyi, Kizito Gweshe, George Charamba  and Jonathan Moyo.

“The group’s overarching agenda was to: 1. Contain  Sadc mediation, so it does not derail 2013 elections. 2. Ensure that Parliament is dissolved by 29 June 2013  and elections are held soon thereafter. 3. Get  Econet  and diamond companies to fund elections to avoid UN funding.

“Besides the three-pronged agenda, there were other daily issues that cropped up. One was a report that lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa had blocked a police raid on Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s Bath Rd offices in Belgravia. The group decided to have Mtetwa deported but this failed.”

Beatrice, a past president of the Zimbabwean Law Society,  was arrested for “obstructing or defeating the course of justice”. She was arrested in Harare on 17 March 2013 after she asked to see the search warrant of police officers who were conducting what she called an “unlawful, unconstitutional, illegal and undemocratic” search of the home of her client.

…

https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-153364.html

Charamba’s Role In “2013 Poll Group” Exposed

Biti case brings judiciary under spotlight

https://www.law.ac.uk/blog/profile-beatrice-mtetwa/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3486400/

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/case-history-beatrice-mtetwa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Mtetwa

http://www.ludovictrarieux.org/uk-index.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludovic_Trarieux_International_Human_Rights_Prize

http://www.ludovictrarieux.org/ (FRANCAIS)

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prix_Ludovic-Trarieux (FRANCAIS)

China: Administrative Penalties Against Lawyers: Another Strike Against Professional Autonomy and Religious Freedom

January 10, 2019

The recent license suspensions of two lawyers in Yunnan have come under public scrutiny for the strange circumstances that led to the suspensions: the lawyers were making legal arguments based on government regulations and criminal statutes, with citation to relevant parts of the national constitution, on behalf of their clients. Their plaintiffs were Falun Gong practitioners accused of “using a cult to undermine the implementation of the law.” The case sheds light on a pattern emerging in the legal profession in China – the penalization of criminal defense attorneys, who represent clients in sensitive cases, with legally dubious accusations of professional misconduct.

“Disorder in the Courtroom”

On November 2, 2018 the Hunan Changsha Ministry of Justice issued administrative penalty decisions against defense lawyers Hu Linzheng and Zeng Wu, claiming that both lawyers “denied the nationally recognized nature of a cult organization.” In December 2017, the two lawyers appeared at the Yunnan Honghe Prefecture Kaiyuan City Court to defend their clients. Hu argued there was no evidence that Falun Gong is a cult and that Article 36 of the Constitution grants Chinese citizens freedom of religion, which at least theoretically limits the government from restricting the practice of Falun Gong. Zeng was faulted for arguing in court that there are “no direct legal regulations that determine Falun Gong is a cult,” and that his client “believed that Falun Gong is protected by the freedom of religion provided in Article 36 of the Constitution.”

The administrative penalty decisions concluded that Hu and Zeng’s conduct violated Article 49, Section 8 of the Lawyers Law of the People’s Republic of China, which states that lawyers can be penalized for speech that severely “disrupts courtroom order.” The decision also cited Articles 2, 39, and 53 of the Measures on the Administration of Lawyers’ Practice, which states that lawyers must support the Communist Party and the socialist rule of law, that lawyers’ conduct cannot disrupt the normal handling of legal cases, and that violations of these measures are punishable by Article 49 of the Lawyers Law.

The Changsha Justice Bureau suspended each of the lawyers’ licenses for six months, without providing evidence that Hu and Zeng had in fact caused disorder in the courtroom. Perhaps as an indication of how baseless the decision was, the Changsha Justice Bureau indicated that leniency was provided to the two lawyers when determining the penalty because both were “sincerely remorseful and cooperated with the investigation.”

…

https://www.duihuahrjournal.org/2019/01/administrative-penalties-against.html?utm_source=HRIC+Updates&utm_campaign=f430b80f21-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_04_11_54_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b537d30fde-f430b80f21-259223637

Weather the Dark Storm, Persevere for Rule of Law in China — A 2019 New Year’s Message From the China Human Rights Lawyers Group

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China#Legal_profession