IRAN: Reza Khandan, human rights defender and husband of Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, has been arrested to serve a 6-year prison sentence

Iran: Human rights defender and lawyer Taher Naghavi was sentenced to six years in prison on 20 October 2024 by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran. The sentence was based on his peaceful human rights activities, in particular his work in defence of ethnic minorities and political prisoners. Naghavi was charged with “gathering and colluding against national security” and “propaganda activities against the State”.

Equatorial Guinea: Ángel Obama Obiang Eseng suspended after harassment

GUATEMALA: INTERPOL refuses Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office activation of Red Notice for arrest of lawyer Ramón Cadena

Turkey: The International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger endorses the recent resolution adopted by the Paris Bar Council, expressing its solidarity with Turkish lawyer Dilek Ekmekci. The lawyer is facing repressive measures aimed at silencing her.

Azerbaijan: Fariz Namazli is an Azeri lawyer specialising in the defence of human rights. His practice focuses on litigation before national courts and the European Court of Human Rights. His defence of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience has led to harassment from the authorities and an attack on the exercise of his profession.

RUSSIA: Alexei Liptser, Igor Sergounine and Vadim Kobzev, arrested in October 2023, face up to six years in prison for “providing information to their client in order to prepare extremist crimes”. These charges are obviously linked to their defence of the most prominent opponent of Vladimir Putin’s regime, who died in prison last February.

 NICARAGUA: human rights lawyer Leyla Carolina Prado forced into exile for defending political prisoners

Lebanon: Mohamad Sablouh was banned from entering Beirut’s military court for three months after criticising a judicial decision he considered unfair on Facebook. He has appealed against this ban to the Military Court of Cassation.

Occupied Crimea/Russia: Human rights lawyer Aleksey Ladin was disbarred from the Tyumen Regional Bar on 25 July 2024 for “violating the Code of Ethics of the Russian Bar”. This disbarment was the result of accusations made against him in October 2023, in response to his commitment to human rights in Crimea under Russian occupation.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Lawyer Gemma Jones disbarred for two years

Tunisia: Mahdi Zagrouba was arrested on Monday 13 May at the Lawyers’ House in Tunis. This followed the arrest of his colleague, Sonia Dahmani, two days earlier.

Crimea: Emil Kurbedinov is a Crimean human rights lawyer.The winner of the 2017 Front Line Defenders award is particularly active in the defence of human rights in Russian-occupied Crimea. On 15 February 2024, he was targeted by the Russian de-facto authorities for a post deemed to “[abuse] the freedom of mass information.”

Russia: Bakhrom Khamroev is a Russian lawyer and human rights activist. He is a member of the Human Rights Centre “Memorial” and is on the Russian government’s list of political opponents. Repeatedly targeted by the authorities, he is now subjected to ill-treatment in detention.

COLOMBIA: Sir Henry Brooke 2024 prize awarded to lawyer Adil Meléndez, who denounces the withdrawal of protection measures

Iran: Kurdish lawyer Golaheh Vatandoust sentenced to over six years in prison by the Islamic Republic of Iran

GUATEMALA: Hearing of lawyer Claudia Gonzalez suspended

China: Ding Jiaxi is a Chinese lawyer and defender of human rights and democracy. As a member of the “New Citizens Movement”, Mr Jiaxi had taken part in an informal meeting with civil rights activists and lawyers on the state of civil society in China. He was arrested in 2019 by the Chinese authorities and subsequently placed in incommunicado detention.

The First Section of the Revolutionary Court has sentenced Khosrow Alikordi to one year’s imprisonment, two years’ exile, a two-year travel ban, a two-year ban on practising as a lawyer, and a two-year ban on appearing on the Internet.

The Observatory expresses its deep concern regarding the situation of Maksim Znak, who has been arbitrarily detained for 3 years.

Russia: Magomed Alamov, a human rights lawyer and member of Crew Against Torture, has received death threats, along with his family, from the relatives of a young woman who had benefited from the organisation’s assistance.

Iran: Repeatedly subjected to relentless harassment by the Iranian government, Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, winner of the Ludovic Trarieux prize in 2018, was arrested and severely beaten while attending the funeral of Armita Garavand, who died following her arrest for “not wearing a headscarf”.

China: lawyer Li Yuhan arbitrarily detained in dreadful conditions

ZIMBABWE: Two lawyers arrested for obstruction of justice

IRAN : Maryam Arvin, an Iranian lawyer and fervent defender of the rights of women who were victims of discrimination, died two months after her release from prison. She had been pursuing a doctorate in law since the age of 28, after obtaining her bachelor’s degree three years earlier.

SENEGAL : Between Friday 4 August and Saturday 5 August, several of Ousmane Sonko’s lawyers were arrested. These arrests are linked to the public appearance of French lawyer Juan Branco at a press conference in Dakar on 30 July, after he had entered Senegal illegally.

SENEGAL: The OIAD condemns intimidation and violence against lawyers in Senegal and strongly denounces restrictions on the exercise of the profession

Democratic Republic of Congo: The Observatory condemns the death in prison of lawyer Banzu Misongo Effremel and calls on the Congolese authorities to carry out a thorough investigation

BELARUS: The Observatory denounces the decision to sentence Belarusian lawyer Aliaksandr Danilevich to 10 years’ imprisonment for criticising the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

TURKEY: Kurdish human rights lawyer Kurtulus Bastimar subjected to persecution and defamatory campaigns.

HAITI: Assassination of lawyer André Charleus

THE OBSERVATORY CONDEMNS ATTEMPTED BREAK-INS AT THE HOME OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE BAR OF GABON, RAYMOND OBAME  

IRAN: Iranian lawyer Mohammad Najafi imprisoned on false charges and banned from medical care  

ESWATINI: Liswati lawyer Maxwell Nkambule was the victim of an assassination attempt because of his defense of pro-democracy activists

TURKEY: The Observatory condemns the serious threats against the president of the Diyarbakir Bar and the disclosure, with impunity, of his personal and family information on social networks 

Azerbaijan: Lawyer Elchin Sadigov is under preventive measure of house arrest and charged with “complicity in brive-taking”, with the risk of a 12-year prison sentence

COLOMBIA: Lawyer Carlos Enrique Maldonado, victim of serious and worrying stigmatisation for defending peasant communities affected by the armed conflict

BANGLADESH: Human rights lawyer Shahanur Islam assaulted in court.

Iran: The iranian lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah has been arrested and sent to prison to serve a sentence that was handed down more than ten years ago

COLOMBIA:Human rights lawyer Andrea Torres Bautista, a  has been victim of kidnapping, serious threats and gender-based violence, as well as the theft of sensitive information in a cyber attack  4 July 2022 Andrea Torres Bautista is a human rights lawyer, legal coordinator and deputy director of the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation (FNEB). FNEB is an organisation composed mainly of women relatives of victims, and has been a major actor in the legal representation, visibility and support for victims of enforced disappearance, sexual violence and police abuse in Colombia. Andrea Torres represents victims in different cases, both in the ordinary justice system and in the transitional justice system (JEP), in which the main defendants are members of the Colombian armed forces. The Observatory has received information about serious threats against lawyer Andrea Torres Bautista. On 21 May, the lawyer was kidnapped, physically assaulted and had all her belongings stolen. According to the lawyer, the events occurred while she and her husband were returning home by taxi. Exceptionally, the lawyer was not in the presence of her bodyguards from the National Protection Unit (UNP). During the attack, carried out by four men, the human rights defender and her husband were physically and […]

Mexico: The Observatory condemns the murder of women’s rights lawyer Cecilia Monzón  

Colombia: The Observatory condemns the harassment of lawyer Luz Estella Romero Villalba and her family   4 May 2022 Luz Estella Romero Villalba is under severe attack for her work as a human rights lawyer in Colombia.  The harassment is directed against her and in particular against her family, having suffered an attempt to forcibly disappear her son.  Luz Estella Romero Villalba is an ecofeminist human rights lawyer in Colombia, where she represents and coordinates the Asociación Colectivo Mujeres al Derecho (COLEMAD). COLEMAD focuses its work on the promotion, respect and defence of the human rights of women, girls, youth and marginalised communities, as well as on environmental and territorial issues. As of 2019, COLEMAD has consultative status with the United Nations. With regard to legal cases, COLEMAD carries out strategic litigation by accompanying organisations and women’s groups that are victims of the armed conflict before ordinary courts (criminal and administrative), courts such as Justice and Peace (Law 975), a special court for land restitution and an administrative mechanism for collective reparation (Law 1448), and a special court for Peace-JEP (Final Peace Agreement between the government and the FARC-EP). As a result of her defence work, between December 2019 and today, […]

Tunisia: criminal investigation against the lawyer and former president of the Tunisian Bar Association Abderrazak Kilani, the Observatory expresses its concern.

China: The Observatory calls on the Chinese authorities to ensure the full and unconditional release of lawyer Yu Wensheng  

Lawyer Akum Michael Nche was abducted in Bamenda by unidentified gunmen on Saturday 15 January 2022. 

Nicaragua: Nicaraguan lawyer José Arnulfo López Cruz is forced into exile to avoid arrest for his legal defence of political prisoners.

The election of lawyer Firmin Yangambi to the Bar of the Tshopo region arbitrarily cancelled

Afghan lawyer Latifa Sharifi, a member of the Hawca association, whose main aim is to protect women’s rights, has already received several open death threats in the past. On 15 August, she tried to leave Afghanistan but was turned away at Kabul airport.

ALGERIA: Arrest and detention of lawyer Abderraouf Arslane