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Iraq: Arrest of lawyers will have ‘chilling effect’ say rights group

August 10, 2017 at 9:02 pm

Daesh flag, 30 March 2017 [SpuntnikInt/Twitter]

Human rights groups have accused the Iraqi authorities of issuing arrest warrants for at least 15 lawyers simply because they were representing clients suspected of being members of Daesh.

Since 24 July, Iraqi authorities issued arrest warrants for lawyers on charges of “terrorism or cooperation with terrorists”. But the real reason for the arrest, suspect Human Rights Watch (HRW), is because they are representing members of Daesh.

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“While lawyers are not immune from prosecution if they engage in criminal activity,” said HRW, “they should not be prosecuted for doing their job as lawyers, nor should the authorities associate them with their clients’ cause simply because they represented them.”

The lawyers were representing clients in the Nineveh district in Mosul which was fully retaken from Daesh last month. While the courts in the Nineveh governorate have jurisdiction over cases of people currently held in the region, the steps taken by the Iraqi authorities are believed to impinge on the rights of people residing in the area.

Describing the targeting of lawyers as having a “chilling effect on private legal representation”, the rights group reported a senior Iraqi judge who told HRW that since the warrants were issued, private lawyers had stopped taking cases of any defendants that were suspected of being affiliated with Daesh.

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HRW, who interviewed a number of lawyers in the province, say the action by the Iraqi authorities was taken to intimidate lawyers and stop them from providing legal representation to suspected Daesh members. As a result, only state-appointed lawyers are taking on the cases but according to the lawyers interviewed by HRW, there are serious concerns that the state-appointed lawyers are not providing a robust defence of the suspected Daesh members.

HRW called on the Iraqi authorities to “immediately explain why they are detaining and charging these lawyers” and also urged the authorities to make it clear that Iraqi lawyers should not be afraid to defend Daesh suspects.