The Philippines: SUBMISSION TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PHILIPPINES

PATTERNS IN THE KILLING OF LAWYERS: THE CASE OF ATTORNEY REX FERNANDEZ

 08/09/21

Prof. Gill H. Boehringer, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Macquarie University Law School, Sydney Australia;

Co-Chair, Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers, International Association of People’s Lawyers

Introduction          

Supreme Court Associate Justice Leonen has called for submissions on the killing of Atty. Rex Fernandez  in order to determine if there are patterns in the killing of Philippine lawyers into which his death fits. [See last page for links to media accounts of the circumstances of the killing.]

I will show that there are indeed such patterns. The sad case of this latest killing in Cebu City can be seen as representing many of the patterns discovered in research carried out on attacks on lawyers for the past two decades by the International Association of People’s Lawyers. The empirical research has been carried out by the Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers (MCAL), Co-chaired by myself and Professor Stuart Russell.

Numbers of violent attacks on lawyers

We have examined the circumstances in 219 violent attacks on lawyers under Presidents Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte. In those attacks 197 lawyers were killed since 2001, while 22 survived the attack.

Here are the overall comparative numbers of violent attacks we have recorded, broken down by the role of the lawyers:

[…]

killing-of-attorney-rex-fernandezDownload

https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/

Tunisia: Les avocats tunisiens concernés par la procédure S17

07/09/21

Une dérive sans précédent vient de se passer : On apprend de source sûre, que tous les avocats tunisiens ont été placés sous S17. Cette nouvelle mesure signifie qu’à chaque sortie du territoire, une consultation auprès de ministère de l’intérieur est effectuée par la police des frontières, causant un retard voire la perte du vol pour l’avocat.

Une telle mesure constitue un précédent grave et une atteinte à toute une corporation qui joue un rôle clé dans la défense des libertés publiques et individuelles.

Même aux heures les plus sombres de la période de Ben Ali une telle attaque à la liberté de circulation des avocats ne s’est jamais produite.

Il est du reste étonnant que le conseil de l’ordre des avocats et l’association des jeunes avocats ne se soient pas encore indignés d’une telle dérive. En effet, cette procédure implique un contrôle frontalier spécifique à l’aéroport à la sortie du territoire tunisien comme à l’entrée. Elle a pour but initial de contrôler les mouvements et déplacements des individus revenus des zones de conflits.

Les avocats tunisiens concernés par la procédure S17

https://www.tunisienumerique.com/tunisie-qui-veut-destabiliser-le-pays-en-remontant-les-avocats-contre-kais-saied/

https://www.businessnews.com.tn/quest-ce-que-la-procedure-s17,540,100219,3

https://www.hakaekonline.com/article/133998/%D9%88%D8%B6%D8%B9-%D9%83%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A-s17 (ARABIC)

وضع جميع المحامين قيد الإجراء s17″ عضو جمعية المحامين يكشف لصحيفة “JDD Tunisie”

وزارة الداخلية تضع كل المحامين التونسيين قيد إجراء الاستشارة الحدودية S17، إشاعة إعلامية غير بريئة

Tunisia: lawyers demand immediate release of colleague

(ENGLISH)

One Of Russia’s Top Human Rights Lawyers Flees To Georgia

07/09/21

One of Russia’s top human rights lawyers, who is representing jailed journalist Ivan Safronov, has left the country after the authorities opened a case against him for allegedly disclosing classified information about his client’s case.

Ivan Pavlov wrote on Telegram on September 7 that he was in Georgia as “restrictions imposed on me over the probe have gradually made my work impossible.”

“I was barred from using communication tools and the Internet, talk to my clients and some of my colleagues. In general, I was forbidden from doing the things that a lawyer needs to do to be effective. The bans were not related to one thing only — the possibility to leave the country. That was a sign showing the way out,” Pavlov wrote, adding that he plans to return to Russia in the future.

Pavlov became a suspect in a criminal case on the disclosure of data with regard to Safronov’s case in April. He has rejected the accusation, calling it politically motivated.

Safronov, a former adviser to the head of Russia’s space agency Roskosmos and a one-time journalist, was arrested and charged with high treason in July 2020 on allegations that he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about Russian arms sales in the Middle East.

Safronov has rejected the accusations against him and many of his supporters have held pickets demanding his release, saying that all case materials have been deemed classified as part of the cover-up.

Russian authorities have launched a massive crackdown on dissent in recent months, jailing dozens of opposition members, activists, and regular citizens under the guise of charges widely considered to be falsified.

[…]

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-safronov-lawyer-flees/31448054.html

https://www.reuters.com/world/top-human-rights-lawyer-leaves-russia-citing-criminal-case-against-him-2021-09-07/

https://www.fidh.org/en/issues/human-rights-defenders/russia-judicial-harassment-of-human-rights-lawyer-ivan-pavlov

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov_(lawyer)