Category: News

Please show your support for Legal Aid and Legal Aid firms in the difficult current climate by sponsoring the 1MCB team.

For more details visit the London Legal Walk 2013 website.

Iain Edwards spoke at a conference on the theories and practice of professional ethics before international criminal courts earlier this month in Liège, Belgium. The conference was jointly presented by the Bar of Liège and the International Criminal Bar. Iain’s presentation addressed the challenges of the application of the Codes of Conduct at the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. Other participants included past and present Chairmen of the International Criminal Bar, as well as Presidents of Bars from Belgium, France and Spain.

Iain Edwards is to defend the leading Rwandan opposition politician, Victoire Ingabire, whose appeal before the Rwandan Supreme Court is to open today, 25 March 2013, in Kigali. Five months ago, she was convicted of two out of six charges brought against her, namely of having minimised the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda and of having conspired to threaten the security of Rwanda through supporting armed activity. She was acquitted of the remaining four charges and sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment. The prosecution, who had been seeking imprisonment for life, is also appealing some of the acquittals and the sentence.

The appeal, which is expected to last for several weeks, will be closely monitored by human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. They criticised the trial at first instance for failing to meet minimum international fair trial standards and for being politically motivated.

After the longest criminal trial in Rwandan history, Victoire Ingabire, represented by Iain Edwards, was acquitted last week of four of the six counts that she had been facing. The leading opposition politician in Rwanda was convicted by the High Court in Kigali of conspiracy to harm the existing authority through terrorism and genocide ideology and sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment. The prosecution had asked that she be sentenced to imprisonment for life.

The case was reported by the BBC, The Economist, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The New York Times amongst others. International human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International criticised the trial for being unfair and for including politically motivated charges.

Iain will continue to represent Mrs Ingabire at her appeal before the Rwandan Supreme Court and, if necessary, before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights based in Arusha, Tanzania.

R v R and B [2012], Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court

Alex Chakmakjian and Jacob Bindman represented two co-defendants at trial over charges of assault on a police officer by R and obstruction of police by B. Following an act of fare evasion, R was apprehended by officers and roughly treated. When his cousin, B, arrived to assist both were arrested after a struggle outside London Bridge Station.

Following belated disclosure by the CPS, it was discovered that several members of the public had witnessed the incident. During a voir dire cross-examination of the officer in charge of the investigation it emerged that a formal complaint about police conduct had been lodged by an independent witness. In addition, another member of the public had uploaded a video of part of the incident on YouTube, revealing a number of officers attending. The footage demonstrated the attitude of the officers on scene, the confusion regarding reasons for arrest and failures to take statements from numerous witnesses potentially adverse to the prosecution case.

By the time of trial, the independent witness had been traced and gave evidence for the Defence. Alex cast doubt over allegations that R had deliberately or recklessly caused injuries to an arresting officer, and Jacob demonstrated that the arrest of B was unlawful. Both R and B were acquitted of those charges.

Rajesh Rai is delighted to be appointed to the Council of Experts for the Democratic Process Institute (www.democraticprogress.org/about.php). The DPI’s work incorporates research and discussions on a wide range of strategic and relevant topics including constitutional reform; preparing for constitutional changes in conflicting societies; post conflict societies; freedom of expression and association; cultural and language rights; political participation and representation; women’s role in revolving the conflict; access to justice and transitional justice including truth and reconcilation commissions.

Iain Edwards will be speaking at the 3rd International Criminal Defense Conference, “International Criminal Justice: Justice for Whom?” in Montreal, Canada this weekend. His presentation will focus on trials in Rwanda and the interplay with international law. Iain will draw on his extensive experience defending accused persons before the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and before the High Court in Rwanda itself.

Jacinta Jones and Gwawr Thomas recently travelled to Colombia as members of the Third International Caravana of Jurists. The Caravana monitors access to justice and threats to the rule of law, in particular threats and violence against lawyers pursuing human rights cases on behalf of indigenous communities, trade unionists, and victims of the violence which has plagued Colombia for decades.

Fifty one Colombian human rights defenders have been assassinated in the last two years; many more have received threats to themselves or their families, or fallen victim to repressive measures hindering their ability to practice, such as interception of privileged communications or groundless disciplinary investigations.

As part of a 45 strong delegation, which included lawyers and judges from the UK, Ireland, Spain, The Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Canada, Jacinta and Gwawr travelled to different regions in Colombia (Jacinta to Cali and Gwawr to Cartagena) to gather testimonies from victims, lawyers and regional authorities. The delegation then returned to Bogota for meetings with various national authorities, including the President of the Supreme Court, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defence, the Land Restitution Office, the Chief Prosecutor, and the Prison Service, as well as several Ambassadors and representatives of the European Union, at which they presented their findings and called upon the authorities to tackle the impunity with which human rights abuses continue across Colombia.

A report of the Caravana’s findings, together with a series of recommendations, will be launched in October.

Lead and Junior, James Murray Smith and Charles Crinion, will return to court next February after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in a case involving damage to the rail network. This included graffiti of the Bluebell steam line in Sussex. Reported in the Evening Standard, the graffiti concerned a VAMP tag on trains, walls and bridges across a period spanning seven years. James pointed out that these were not the sort of artistic images associated with Banksy and others, but were instead pure acts of vandalism.

Matthew Groves and Parveen Judge recently acted for one of the defendants in the ‘Fred West house’ trafficking case.  Their client was acquitted following a successful submission of no case to answer.  The defendant had been accused of recruiting women from the Czech Republic into sham marriages and, ultimately, prostitution.

This traumatic case was reported in the Daily Mail and a News Blog.

Another defendant, Zdeno Sarissky, was also acquitted after a submission of no case to answer.  The trial continues in relation to the remaining defendants.

In 1971, the Chagossians were forcibly exiled from their homeland in a joint operation by the UK and the US, in order to make way for the US military base of Diego Garcia.  The Islands, which remain British territory, were leased to the US for fifty years, with the option of a twenty year extension, in return for a substantial subsidy on the US’s Polaris submarine nuclear deterrent; the deal was struck on condition that the entire archipelago was – in the words of contemporary official correspondence  – “fully sanitised” and “cleansed” of life.  Stripped of their British citizenship and awarded only £325 in compensation, the Chagossians were forcibly removed to Mauritius and the Seychelles.  Their fight to return to their homeland continues before the European Court of Human Rights.

The Secretary of State had proposed that the removal of Gwawr’s client was proportionate even though his mother had been granted UK citizenship under the 2002 concession awarded to first generation descendants of those who were deported from the Islands.

Gwawr was instructed by Oluwole Osibona, Head of the Immigration and Nationality Department at Freemans Solicitors.

Rajesh Rai has been granted permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal following oral submissions.  The novel case concerns conflicts in representation of a parent and minor child, where a parent is being deported as a foreign criminal.