Daily Archives: 14/07/2021

USA: Civil Rights Lawyer Alleges Illegal Arrest After Kidnapping Call

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13/07/21

A civil rights attorney alleges Washington police entered his home without a warrant, detained him, and later retaliated against him following a 911-call mistakenly reporting a kidnapping, according to a complaint filed in a federal court in Washington.

Jared Fishman is a former Department of Justice attorney who now runs a nonprofit “dedicated to developing data-based solutions for a more equitable criminal justice system.” He alleges that Officer Marck Jaeger confronted him at his home following a 911-call reporting that the lawyer had abducted his own daughter outside of a restaurant.

Jaeger encountered Fishman “sitting on the front stoop, shoeless, playing Bob Dylan’s ‘Simple Twist of Fate’ on an acoustic guitar,” the complaint says. The officer then allegedly followed Fishman inside his home, grabbed him, and forced him to the ground in front of his children, according to the complaint.

“No reasonable officer could have believed that there was any justification for detaining Fishman after his wife and children confirmed that he did nothing wrong,” according to the complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Fishman also alleges that Lieutenant Patrick Loftus retaliated against the attorney’s protestations by filing legal and ethics complaints with the Maryland State Bar, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility, and the U.S. Inspector General.

[…]

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/civil-rights-lawyer-alleges-illegal-arrest-after-kidnapping-call

Timor Leste/USA: ‘You know we are going to kill you’: Ex-priest’s chilling threat to lawyer

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14/02/21

Richard Daschbach has support in high places in East Timor.

A defrocked Catholic priest accused of systematic child abuse in East Timor has been reported to police for allegedly threatening to kill the human rights lawyer representing the victims.

The claim against American-born Richard Daschbach was made in a statement released on Tuesday night by law firm JUS Juridico Social Consultoria.

“At around 11.15am [on Tuesday] inside the Oecusse District Court, the accused of the case of 14 counts of sexual abuse against children, one count of child pornography and domestic violence, ex-priest Mr Richard Daschbach threatened to kill Ms Barbara Oliveira, partner of JU,S Juridico Social,” the firm said in the statement.

“This threat was made inside the court building, directly witnessed by one member of the national police. While Ms Oliveira was sitting and working in the waiting area of the court waiting for the conclusion of the hearing, Mr Daschbach left the defendant waiting room to go to the toilet.

“Upon his return, Mr Daschbach walked across the open area and stood right in front of her while she remained sitting, at a distance of approximately 1.5m to 2m, and clearly uttered in English, ‘Barbara, you know we are going to kill you’. After that, he went back to the defendant room.”

The incident was reported to police and because Oliveira is a Brazilian and Portuguese national, their embassies in Dili have also been informed about the alleged death threat, the statement said.

Miguel Faria, one of the lawyers defending the sacked priest, told Portuguese news agency Lusa his team “were not aware of the situation”.

Daschbach, 84, is facing charges of child pornography, domestic violence and 14 counts of alleged abuse of girls under 14 at a shelter he operated in the country between 1991 and 2018.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age last month revealed a letter sent in 2018 by Daschbach to the Rome headquarters of the Society of the Divine Word, the church’s largest missionary order, in which he agreed to comply with any measures it imposed, saying “the victims could be anyone from about 2012 back to 1991”. The church expelled him soon afterwards.

His high-profile criminal trial in mostly Catholic East Timor has been held before three judges in the remote territory of Oecusse.

[…]

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/you-know-we-are-going-to-kill-you-ex-priest-s-chilling-threat-to-lawyer-20210714-p589hv.html

https://www.jus.tl/

https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/mundo/organizacao-que-defende-vitimas-de-abuso-diz-ter-sido-alvo-de-ameacas-em-timor-leste_n1335072 (PORTUGUES)

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/06/10/un-ex-pretre-americain-en-proces-au-timor-pour-abus-sexuels-sur-des-enfants (FRANCAIS)

Iran: Iranian Judiciary Assumes Sweeping New Powers Over Lawyers

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12/07/21

State Now Issues and Revokes Law Licenses, Crushing Independence of Legal Profession

Due Process and Fair Trial Rights Dealt Further Blow by New Legislation

July 12, 2021—In a sweeping grab of new powers over the Iranian Bar Association (IBA) that grants the Iranian judiciary the right to issue and revoke law licenses, the country’s judicial establishment, now led by human rights violator Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, has effectively destroyed the independence of Iranian lawyers.

The new regulations, which render meaningless the right to due process and a fair trial, should be strongly condemned by lawyers, human rights groups, and the international community, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.

“The ongoing state policy of undermining Iran’s independent bar association and its lawyers is eliminating the right to due process when Iranians need it the most,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

“Human rights lawyers are a lifeline for citizens relentlessly and unlawfully targeted by the state, and the Iranian government expects the world to look the other way while it cuts this lifeline,” said Ghaemi.

New Regulations Unlawfully Allow Judiciary to Deny Licenses at Its Whim

Iran’s newly appointed judiciary chief, former intelligence minister and cleric Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei has the authority to ratify and issue certain regulations without parliamentary approval. Yet he does not have the authority to issue regulations concerning the legal profession. According to the Law on the Independence of Bars Associations, only the Bar Association has this authority.

Nevertheless, the Regulations for the Enforcement of the Law on the Independence of the Bar Association were approved in the final days of the term of the previous judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi (who was elected president on June 18, 2021, in an engineered election controlled by the hardline ruling clerical establishment), and ratified by the judiciary on June 23, 2021.

Previously, the IBA had the authority to issue and renew licenses to practice law, but the new regulations transfer this authority to the judiciary, which can now deny licenses to anyone. The regulations now also give the judiciary the power to revoke licenses, in violation of the same law, which had previously granted that authority to the Bar Association’s disciplinary tribunal.

The ratifications are the latest step in a decades-long campaign against independent lawyers in Iran, primarily aimed at eliminating fair standards of due process for individuals accused of criticizing state policies.

[…]

Iranian Judiciary Assumes Sweeping New Powers Over Lawyers

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

قوه قضاییه باید روند تضعیف و نابودی استقلال نهاد وکالت در ایران را متوقف کند 
(FARSI)