Turkey ECtHR: Turkey guilty of torturing lawyer
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a verdict in the case of Gülizar Tuncer, a human rights advocate who has been subjected to police violence in 2000. Turkey was found guilty of violating the European Convention of Human Rights Article 3 on the ban of “ill-treatment and torture”. The court ordered the Turkish […]
Vietnam Appeal Court upholds sentence Le Quoc Quan
On 18 February 2014, an appeals courts in Vietnam upheld the verdict against lawyer Le Quoc Quan. He was arrested on 27 December 2013 and sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment on charges of ‘tax evasion’. Members of the EU Delegation to Vietnam, as well as representatives of the US and Canadian embassies, were allowed to attend […]
DRC Lawyer subjected to intimidatory acts
Didier Kalemba, a lawyer from the Democractic Republic of the Congo, has been subjected to intimidatory acts. He received a series of threathening calls, ordering him to appear at the headquarters of the Agence Nationale de Renseignements (ANR, National Intelligence Agency) on the morning of 3 February. When he didn’t obey this order, he received […]
Vietnam Letter to Appeal Judge for Le Quoc Quan
L4L, together with a broad coalition of organizations, has sent a letter to the Supreme Court of Vietnam to express their support for the appeal of Mr. Le Quoc Quan against his recent conviction on charges of alleged tax evasion. In the letter, the organisations highlighted four important legal issues in support of Mr Quan’s […]
Egypt L4L speaks to Ragia Omran
On 11 January 2014, L4L met with Ms Ragia Omran, a leading member of a number of Egypt’s legal advocacy organizations and women’s rights activists. Ms Omran has set up a rapid response network, involving approximately 40 organizations and 100 lawyers, to (legally) assist people who are arrested for protesting or for other political reasons. […]
Syria Lawyer victim of enforced disappearance
On 31 January 2014, lawyer Roshdy El Sheikh Rasheed was taken from his home to an unknown location by plain-clothes individuals. Because his home is in Tadmor, which is under control of government forces, it is considered very likely that state actors are involved in the human rights defender’s continued enforced disappearance. His whereabouts are unknown. […]
Vietnam Le Quoc Quan on hungerstrike
Jailed Vietnamese blogger and human rights lawyer Le Quoc Quan has launched a hunger strike to protest the refusal by prison authorities to provide him access to legal counsel, access to legal and religious books, and access to a priest, ahead of his appeal trial on 18 February 2014 in Hanoi. Le Quoc Quan has […]
Vietnam L4L participates in UPR ‘side-event’
Every four years the United Nations Human Rights Council reviews the human rights situation of each member state. In advance of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Vietnam, L4L, together with a coalition of Vietnamese and international human rights organisations and activists, hosted a side event. This event focussed on the most […]
Kazakhstan Disbarment of lawyers for ‘violating professional ethics’
Two lawyers from Kazakhstan were disbarred for simply doing their job.The lawfulness of one disbarment will now be reviewed by the Supreme Court. What happened?Lawyers Lyubov Agushevich and Polina Zhukova represented a defendant in criminal proceedings. During his trial, they submitted motions and requests for recusals. While the lawyers claim that they were just […]
China Xu Zhiyong sentenced to 4 years in prison
Xu Zhiyong, a forty-year-old human rights lawyer, was convicted to a four-year prison sentence by a Beijing court on 27 January on charges of ‘gathering crowds to disrupt public order’. At his trial, Xu’s lawyer was not allowed to call witnesses and his closing argument was interrupted and ended after ten minutes. Xu Zhiyong is a […]
Iran Nasrin Sotoudeh expresses gratitude in video message
The video message that you find below was recently received from Nasrin Sotoudeh, after she was unexpectedly released early from prison in September 2013. Since 2009 L4L has campaigned for Nasrin Sotoudeh; this was after she received a travel ban for the first time. During her (unfair) trial and three-year detention, we asked attention for her situation through letter writing campaigns. When she went […]
Colombia Day of the endangered lawyer
24 January 2014 is the “Day of the Endangered Lawyer”. This year, the annual event focuses on lawyers in Colombia who receive death threats or have even been murdered because they defend the rights of the poorest, and who work on cases of human rights violations in rural areas where small-scale producers are attempting to return to lands illegally […]
Cuba Human rights lawyer attacked
On 9 January 2014, human rights lawyer Juan Carlos González Leiva, his wife and seven other individuals were attacked by by members of the National Revolutionary Police. Leiva is a human rights lawyer and member of the Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba (Council of Human Rights Reporters of Cuba), as well as […]
Turkey Lawyer already 4 years in pre-trial detention
Muharrem Erbey, a Turkish lawyer, is one of the 152 prominent members of political and civil society organisations that stand trial together, in one single trial in Turkey. Since 24 December 2009, when he was arrested in the early morning by an anti-terror unit, he has been in pre-trial detention. As a lawyer, he stood […]
Turkey L4L observes trial of Ümit Kocasakal, President of the Istanbul Bar Association
Lawyers for Lawyers has organised a trial observation and asked former President of the Amsterdam Bar Association, Hans van Veggel, to join the observation on behalf of concerned Dutch Bar Presidents. On 7 January 2013 Ümit Kocasakal, the President of the Istanbul Bar Association and members of its board , were put on trial […]
Syria Human rights lawyer Razan Zeitouneh abducted
On 9 December 2013, human rights lawyer Razan Zeitouneh, her husband, Wa’el Hamada, and two colleagues, Nazem Hamadi and Samira Khalil, were abducted by unknown individuals. Razan Zeitouneh recorded this message and sent it to FIDH on 4 December 2013. L4L, together with another 15 organisations, issued a joint public statement saying Razan Zeitouneh and […]
