posted by zaina19 on September, 2005 as Human Rights
5.9.2005 17:51 MSK Committee for Lawyers’ Rights set up RUSSIA, Moscow. On 1 September, All-Russian Public Movement for the Human Rights set up the Committee for the Rights of Lawyers. Mikhail Trepashkin was elected Chairman of the Committee. On 31 August he was granted an early conditional release from prison where he had been serving sentence for divulging state secret — a charge that Trepashkin and his lawyers believe to be politically motivated. Besides Trepashkin the Committee members include lawyers Rouslan Koblev, Yelena Liptser, Stanislav Markelov and Roustam Chernov.
Speaking at the press conference at Independent Press Centre on 2 September, Mikhail Trepashkin and Lev Ponomaryov, Executive Director of All-Russian Public Movement For the Human Rights, revealed the Committee’s purpose and goals. They include publicising every case of unlawful and unfounded persecution against lawyers; alerting higher executive and judicial bodies to violations of lawyers’ legitimate rights in the context of criminal investigations; protecting lawyers at international level; practical protection of lawyers in the context of criminal investigations; generalisation and development of universal practices for protection of lawyers’ rights as parties to criminal investigation.
As a separate task, the Committee’s founding members see achieving accountability of the officials who violate lawyers’ rights.
Over the past year Movement For the Human Rights has received many complaints in connection with cases of unlawful or unfounded criminal persecution of lawyers. At present, the state, through law enforcement agencies persecuting lawyers for their legitimate work, is effectively trying to eliminate the notion of client confidentiality and the institute of advocacy et al reducing its function to mere mediation with the tinge of delation, states Movement For the Human Rights in its press release.
Serghei Brovchenko, a lawyer who also experienced persecution in connection with his professional activities, stated that the Duma is currently considering a bill that provides for subordination of lawyers’ associations to the executive and allows the prosecution to access the documentation of the defence.
Translated by Olga Sharp PRIMA-News Agency [2005-09-02-Rus-24] http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2005/9/5/33140.html
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