The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) on Monday expressed its deep concern at the issuance of detention warrants for 60 lawyers in Turkey on grounds linked to the representation of their clients, in breach of the Turkish government’s international law obligations.
The UN’s Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers say that “lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions” (Article 18). In a 2018 report on Turkey, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had highlighted “a pattern of persecution of lawyers representing individuals accused of terrorism offenses, being associated with their clients’ cause (or alleged cause) while discharging their official functions, and consequently prosecuted for the same or related crime attributed to their client.”
Turkey should end detention of lawyers held for representing clients: ICJ
