2022-05-26

West Bank

Core Program / position paper

Memo Addressed to Attorney General and Director of the Ombudsman and Human Rights Office on Preventing a Lawyer from Meeting her Client

Respected Attorney General Mr. Akram Al-Khatib,

His Excellency Brigadier Rudayna Bani Odeh, Director of the Ombudsman and Human Rights Office,

MUSAWA - The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession expresses its greetings, and demonstrates that it received a complaint from lawyer Ms. Marwa Raddad, the lawyer of client S.H who is arrested in Tulkarm police station. The lawyer noted that her client had been detained for more than two months under a complaint of insult, vilification, and contempt that was filed by a person the client had previously filed a complaint against amongst others on intentional abuse and attempted murder and damage to others' property. The lawyer added that she was denied meeting her client and was not allowed to sign her client on a special power of attorney, and her right to meet her client is still violated to date, the thing that explicitly contradicts Article 12 of the Basic Law that clearly stipulates with no controversy or difference in interpretation: “Every arrested or detained person shall be informed of the reason for their arrest or detention. They shall be promptly informed, in a language they understand, of the nature of the charges brought against them. They shall have the right to contact a lawyer and to be tried before a court without delay.”, and Article 14 of the Basic Law, which states:  “An accused person is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law that guarantees the accused the right to a defense. Any person accused in a criminal case shall be represented by a lawyer.”, and violates an inherent right of the detainee and his lawyer together and alone, which constitutes an arbitrary use of powers and competences contrary to the rule of law and the Regulations of the Performance of Public Office.

MUSAWA considers that the complaint takes us back to a repetition of the same violation relating to denying lawyers from performing their legal message again and without any legal basis. Furthermore, the complaint reflects the continuous violation of detained or arrested citizens by law enforcement bodies, which constitutes a serious prejudice to the guarantees of access to justice and kills established constitutional principles in the legal conscience of the state of law and institutions, foremost among which is the principle that a human is originally innocent, arrest is not a punishment and personal freedom is a guaranteed right without prejudice. It also flouts the Bar Association’s Law and abolishes the professional and legal rights of lawyers, their duty and right to defend their clients’ rights, including their right to fair and legal arrest and trial guarantees for their clients.

We note that the procedure for preventing the complainant from meeting her client in private also expressly contravenes the operative of Article 24 of the Law of Penal Procedure, that stipulates: “The Warden of the Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre ('Prison') shall not allow anyone to contact the detainee, except by the written permission of the Public Prosecution. In such case, the Warden shall inscribe in the register of the Centre the name of the person, the time of the meeting, and the date and contents of the permission, without prejudice to the right of the accused to communicate with his counsel without the presence of a third party.”, as well as its gross lawlessness from the principles and texts of the International Human Rights Law, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and its override of the right to defense, which is one of the most prominent sacred constitutional rights.

We therefore demand that you consider this memo and take legal action on the substance of the complaint, including holding the police officers who perpetrated it accountable, allowing the complainant to promptly fulfill her mission and preserve the rights of her client, and inform us of the actions taken by you in this regard.

With respect,

Issued on 26.05.2022                                                                                      MUSAWA