Ukraine: killing of lawyer must be investigated promptly

August 22, 2019

The ICJ calls on the Ukrainian authorities to investigate the murder of lawyer Olexandr Ivanov, killed today with an automatic weapon near SIZO (Pre-trial Dentention Centre) №6 in Kropyvnytskyi.

The shooting was carried out from a car by unknown persons. The lawyer died on the spot. Another person injured in the incident was hospitalized in critical condition.

“The killing of lawyer Oleksandr Ivanov must be independently, promptly, and thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice,” said Temur Shakirov, ICJ Senior Legal Adviser.

“Such crimes strip any legal reforms of their positive impact if lawyers’ life is always in danger when exercising their functions,” he added.

The police have confirmed the occurrence of the killing and initiated an investigation preliminarily qualified as intentional murder under article 115-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian National Bar Association (UNBA) is planning to convene an emergency meeting of the Committee on Protection of Lawyers Rights and Professional Guarantees. The UNBA has also referred to the leadership of regional prosecution and police authorities to bring the case under personal control.

…

Ukraine: killing of lawyer must be investigated promptly

https://www.unian.info/society/10659855-lawyer-shot-dead-in-ukraine-s-kropyvnytskyi.html

https://www.legal500.com/firms/16719-yukov-partners-law-office/offices/21604-moscow-russia/lawyers/113976

India: 2 days on, lawyer’s attackers not nabbed

August 23, 2019

Lawyers on Thursday expressed strong resentment as police have not arrested the miscreants who attacked and injured senior lawyer Prafulla Jagannath Padhy two days back.

Two motorbike riders had beaten Padhy severely as he opposed their rash driving at Prem Nagar on Tuesday evening. After being attacked by them, Padhy was hospitalised. The Big Bazaar police reached the spot and started investigation.

In protest, members of the Ganjam Bar Association and the Ganjam-Gajapati Notary Association resorted to a cease-work agitation on Wednesday and met SP Pinak Mishra, demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.

Bar Association President Rabi Panigrahi, secretary Kailash Panigrahi, members Deepak Patnaik, Pradeep Behera, Kiran Mandal, Ashok Sukla and Chiranjit Rajaguru and Notary Association president Prasad Rao and secretary Prakash Chandra Dash met the SP.

On Thursday, lawyers expressed strong resentments over police inaction.

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/state-editions/2-days-on–lawyer—s-attackers-not-nabbed.html

http://www.gbab.in/members.php

Cameroon: Cameroun : le procès de Maurice Kamto fixé au 6 septembre

le 22 août, 2019

Le tribunal militaire de Yaoundé a fixé au 6 septembre la date d’ouverture de son procès. L’opposant camerounais sera jugé aux côtés de plusieurs de ses partisans pour « insurrection et hostilité contre la patrie ».

Le tribunal militaire de Yaoundé a fixé au 6 septembre la date d’ouverture de son procès. L’opposant camerounais sera jugé aux côtés de plusieurs de ses partisans pour « insurrection et hostilité contre la patrie ».

Arrivé en deuxième position lors de l’élection présidentielle du 7 octobre 2018, Maurice Kamto avait été arrêté aux côtés de 150 personnes, à la suite d’une manifestation le 26 janvier 2019 à l’appel de son parti, le Mouvement pour la Renaissance du Cameroun (MRC), qui considérait la victoire de Paul Biya, au pouvoir depuis 1982, comme un « hold-up électoral ».

Mi-février, le président du MRC et plusieurs de ses partisans avaient été présentés devant le tribunal militaire de Yaoundé, où une information judiciaire pour « hostilité contre la patrie » et « insurrection », entre autres accusations, a été ouverte à leur encontre.

Le tribunal a finalement fixé l’ouverture de son procès au 6 septembre, a annoncé Emmanuel Simh, son avocat et troisième vice-président du MRC.

M. Kamto avait été convoqué mardi devant cette juridiction militaire qui lui a notifié cette date, a précisé son avocat.

…

https://www.jeuneafrique.com/818707/politique/cameroun-le-proces-de-maurice-kamto-fixe-au-6-septembre/

https://www.lepoint.fr/afrique/cameroun-le-proces-de-l-opposant-maurice-kamto-fixe-au-6-septembre-22-08-2019-2331040_3826.php

https://www.voaafrique.com/a/d%C3%A9but-du-proc%C3%A8s-du-principal-opposant-%C3%A0-paul-biya-le-6-septembre/5051154.html

Cameroun: Début du procès du principal opposant à Paul Biya le 6 septembre

Amnesty international demande la libération « immédiate » de Maurice Kamto

https://www.theafricareport.com/16359/cameroon-michele-ndoki-a-symbol-of-political-hope-faces-death-penalty/

http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20190718-cameroun-avocats-francais-maurice-kamto-denoncent-acharnement

https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2019/08/20/cameroun-des-detenus-tortures

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Kamto

https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/cameroon-military-tribunal-begins-hearing-case-against-maurice-kamto-on-september-6/ (ENGLISH)

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/20/cameroon-detainees-tortured (ENGLISH)

https://ewn.co.za/2019/08/22/cameroon-separatist-leader-s-sentence-could-increase-violence-analyst (ENGLISH)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Kamto (ENGLISH)

India: Bhim Army Chief, 95 Others Arrested After Massive Protest in Delhi Over Ravidas Temple Demolition

August 22, 2019

The Delhi Police has arrested Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad and 95 others on several charges, including rioting and unlawful assembly, after Dalits protested violently in South Delhi over the demolition of a Ravidas temple, officials said on Thursday.

Azad was produced before a court on Thursday, which sent him to judicial custody, a senior police officer said.

The Dalit leader and 95 others were detained on Wednesday night from Tughlakabad area after protest by Dalit community members over the demolition of the temple turned violent. Police had to resort to mild lathicharge and fire tear-gas shells to disperse the crowd.

The protesters had set on fire two motorcycles and damaged a police vehicle. A few policemen were also injured in the clash.

“A total of 96 people, including Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, have been arrested for rioting, unlawful activities, assaulting public servant, damaging public property and causing injury to people,” said Devesh Srivastava, Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range).

“We are maintaining vigil, have deployed officers and are constantly monitoring the situation,” he said.

On Wednesday, the protesters turned violent when police did not allow them to proceed to the site of the temple demolished by the Delhi Development Authority on August 10 on the orders of the Supreme Court.

…

https://www.news18.com/news/india/bhim-army-chief-chandrashekhar-azad-95-others-arrested-for-rioting-after-massive-protest-in-delhi-over-ravidas-temple-demolition-2280487.html

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/dalit-protest-bhim-army-chief-arrested-for-rioting-756080.html

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/bhim-army-chief-chandrashekhar-azad-arrested-after-clash-in-delhi-over-ravidas-temple-demolition/article29219420.ece

https://www.timesnownews.com/videos/mirror-now/politics/protests-over-temple-demolition-bhim-army-chief-chandrashekhar-azad-arrested/39619

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/bhim-army-chief-chandrashekhar-azad-detained-dalits-protest-delhi-ravidas-temple-demolition-1590142-2019-08-22

https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/who-is-bhim-army-chief-chandrashekhar-azad-the-dalit-leader-arrested-in-delhi/473985

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekhar_Azad_(social_activist)

USA: Military Lawyer Denied Promotion While Defending Qaeda Suspect

August 22, 2019

Lt. Alaric A. Piette was tough enough to serve nearly seven years as a Navy SEAL. He was smart enough to go on to Georgetown University’s law school, dedicated enough to rejoin the Navy as a lawyer and principled enough to break with military tradition by asking Congress to look into the sexual harassment of a female sailor he was representing.

But none of it, he said, has been as consequential as his current job representing a man in a death penalty terrorism case that has put a spotlight on some of the most dysfunctional aspects of the military tribunal system.

After standing up to that system for two years, Lieutenant Piette was recently informed that he had been passed over for promotion, a potentially career-ending decision that his allies saw as retribution for his tenacious work defending his client.

And it may not have helped his career that the man he defends, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, is accused of directing Al Qaeda’s suicide bombing of the United States Navy destroyer Cole off Aden, Yemen, on Oct. 12, 2000. Seventeen American sailors were killed in the attack, men and women Lieutenant Piette calls shipmates.

…

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article184350533.html

Turkey: İzmir police detain 27 lawyers at protest over removal of Kurdish mayors

August 22, 2019

Police in İzmir detained 26 lawyers and one journalist during a protest on Thursday over the removal of recently elected Kurdish mayors from office, the Mezopotamya news agency reported.

The demonstration, held by members of the Jurists for Freedom Association (ÖHD) and the Progressive Lawyers Association after the Interior Ministry ousted three Kurdish mayors in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır, Van, and Mardin, was blockaded and violently dispersed by the police, who said they would not allow it to proceed due to a 10-day protest ban imposed by the İzmir Governor’s Office.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Erol Katırcıoğlu was forcibly separated from the protesters, while journalists who were at the scene to report on the protest were allegedly insulted and one was detained.

İzmir police detain 27 lawyers at protest over removal of Kurdish mayors

https://bianet.org/english/law/212079-lawyers-detained-in-izmir-released

27 İzmir lawyers in police custody for protesting removal of Kurdish mayors

https://news.sol.org.tr/police-attacks-mps-lawyers-journalists-turkey-176135