Category: News

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.

Christa Fielden wins the right to take the case of Malik, involving an EU vs UK clash on immigration, to the Court of Appeal. The case centres on a Chinese National whose child was born in Ireland. The Home Office decided that the mother could stay in the UK to look after her child but was not allowed herself to work in the UK. The European Commission wrote to the UK government stating that this clashed with EU rules. Christa is delighted, after a hard-fought case, to gain permission for a full hearing before the Court of Appeal.

This traumatic case involved a man who was brutally tortured in Nigeria. After his torture, he was forced to swear an oath that he would not reveal to anybody his ill-treatment nor anything about the ritualistic and horrific murders that he had witnessed. He was marked with wounds to indicate that he had sworn such an oath. He initially did not reveal any of this in his asylum application as he was too traumatised. He also feared retribution for breaching the oath, particularly as one of the ritualistic murders that he was forced to watch was the killing of a man and his family who had broken a similar oath of silence.

His asylum claim was rejected at both First Tier and Upper Tribunals, both these courts having failed to take into account a wealth of medical and country evidence. The appeal before the Court of Appeal was subsequently rejected on the basis of the “second appeals test”. Christa Fielden will seek to challenge this decision before the ECtHR.

R (Sandhu) v Isleworth Crown Court

The High Court last week ruled that pit bull type dogs that are unable to live with their legal owners can instead live with a registered keeper.  The High Court found that this does not amount to making a gift or transfer of ownership.  The judgment means that Bullet and Cuddles, who have been in kennels for just under two years because their owner is serving a sentence of imprisonment, can now live with a registered keeper, saving them from certain destruction.

It is hoped that the ruling will save many dogs from unecessary destruction.

The Claimant was represented by Pamela Rose.

John Benson QC is leading Roger Daniells-Smith on a test case concerning the legal interpretation of the Obscene Publications Act. The debate centres on whether the logs of closed chatrooms, where all are willing participants in the exchange of pornographic materials of young children, are caught within the Act.

On 10th April 2012, the European Court of Human Rights gave judgment in the application of Gabrielyan v Armenia 8088/05. Rajesh Rai drafted the full submissions in this application on behalf of the Kurdish Human Rights Project.

The European Court of Human Rights found contraventions of Article 6(3) when read with Article 6(1) of The Convention. In particular, the Court made important observations in relation to the right to effective representation by State appointed lawyers, the right to cross examine witnesses and the legal position on absent witnesses. Details of the judgment can be found on www.echr.coe.int.

Two new arrivals at 1 MCB:

1. Julie Clarke joins Chambers as Practice Manager. With ten years’ senior management experience at Thomson Reuters and four years as MD in Ireland, Julie brings the latest ideas in terms of customer care and process. She hopes to meet many of you over the next year.

2. Mike Barrett joins as Clerking & Office Assistant and is already making an impression with his positive and helpful approach to helping Chambers run smoothly.