ARBITRARY ARREST, ARBITRARY
DETENTION, ADMINISTRATIVE AND JUDICIAL HARASSMENT OF LAWYERS DURING THE
EXERCISE OF THEIR DUTIES IN GRECE
LWB Greece expresses its urgent concern and calls for international attention on a new crackdown on lawyers defending human rights and liberties in the context of the pandemic. LWB has been informed by reliable sources about the following alleged incidents:
On 6/12/2020, in the 12th anniversary of the murder by a police bullet of the 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos, the chief of police issued a decision forbidding to citizens to pay a tribute to the deceased child by leaving a flower to the monument of his death respecting all social distancing measures, and thus make a point about the struggle against injustice and police brutality and impunity.
In order to avert such a tribute of by-passers and ensure respect to the Chief's decision, thousands of policemen were sent to the vicinity of the place where Alexis was murdered; the police had an order to detain by-passers in this area, allegedly because they did not comply with the measures taken due to the pandemic.
Two high profile lawyers went on spot to defend the rights of the people who, after the intervention of the police, had now become a “spontaneous gathering” of approximately 50 people, being denied of their freedom of movement without being given any information about the ground of such restriction.
The people’s lawyers also became target of the described attack to the Rule of Law.
Lawyer Thanasis Kampagiannis, a member of the Board of the Athens Bar Association, and lawyer Costas Papadakis, also widely known for his anti-fascist defense, were arbitrarily arrested while performing their duties.
They were initially „adduced“ to the police directorate, placed in a bus together with dozens of the people who had asked for their legal support.
The lawyers were then arbitrarily detained for hours.
After a few hours in detention it became clear, though, that the citizens, as well as the lawyers, were not adduced, but arrested, on the pretext of allegedly breaching pandemic’s restriction of movement measures; clearly, the lawyers, since the onset of their encounter with the policemen, were on spot in the context of their Function: they were asked by people to defend and uphold their human rights.
Upon suffering a degrading transfer by bus to the Police Directorate, the lawyers were detained together with approximately 80 people, in humiliating conditions. They were forcibly exposed to circumstances that are conducive to Covid-19 transmission, with the authorities’ acts and omissions violating procedurally any notion of duty to protect and the “do not harm” principle.
Delicto flagrante proceedings were enforced on the lawyers, although this is clearly forbidden by pertinent law; it is also forbidden for a lawyer to be arrested during the exercise of his/her duties, but the provisions in force did not seem to discourage the policemen from enforcing what was verified by witnesses as an “order from Attica's Chief to arrest the lawyers”.
The lawyers were charged with the misdemeanor of “violation of hygienic measures” and were immediately asked to give an apology. They denied the accusation and rigidly objected to the insinuation of them having breached any legislative provision. They explained that they were on spot in the context of exercising their profession. They reminded that they had introduced themselves to the police as lawyers representing clients, right from the outset.
The lawyers protested a breach of the
Lawyer’s Honor and of the respect owed to their institutional Function and requested the prosecution of all responsible for
violation of duty and for exposing them to a heightened risk of Covid-19
transmission, in defiance of protection measures that ought to have been in
place. They argued that it was the police which violated the legislated measures in place, not the lawyers or the civilians.
Among those who had a professional function on the spot (lawyers, reporters, police), it was only for lawyers that the order for arrest was given, which proves the incentive of a targeted crackdown on lawyers.
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LWB notes that the Athens Bar Association
has issued a protest about the treatment of the 2 arrested lawyers. in accordance with the UN's Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers
(preamble), "professional associations of lawyers play a vital role in
safeguarding professional standards and ethical principles by protecting their
members from persecution and inappropriate restrictions and violations". LWB expects that the ABA will take more dynamic follow-up action regarding the treatment of its members.
LWB decries in all tones the arbitrary arrest, the arbitrary detention and the administrative and judicial harassment of lawyers because of performing their duties –and, notably, in the very course of performing their duties!
DYYAD highlights the Report published by the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Dunja Mijatović, which expressed distinct concerns about the situation of lawyers in Greece.
In paras 18 and 20, it speaks about "a number of lawyers placed under investigation", "lawyers ... have themselves been subjected to harassment by law enforcement authorities in Greece"... "lawyers... are increasingly being targeted due to their activities in the fields of human rights protection, the promotion of accountable governance or the fight against corruption." (par.9), "Harassment against lawyers working on human rights cases is a newer tendency.", "...Judicial and administrative harassment has reportedly been experienced by lawyers" (par.18), concluding that lawyers are still subjected to attacks, violence, intimidation, judicial harassment and other forms of reprisals".
LWB notes that there are cases v. Greece about lawyers' arbitrary detention and harassment pending judgment before the ECtHR (Koutra and Katzaki v. Greece and M.C. v. Greece) which have already led to global decry and interventions by the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE, and international organizations such as the European Bar (CCBE), OMCT and FIDH.
LWB also notes that 56 out of the 63 Greek Bar Associations have requested the Council of Europe's European Committee for Social Rights for an interim measure, because of several intentional violations of lawyers' social rights in Greece, which is being now examined by the ECSR in urgency. In it, lawyers have alleged a crackdown on them by State policies and discriminative exclusions.
In response to all the above:
LWB highlights that, according to the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers:
"Guarantees for the exercise of the lawyer's function
16. Governments should ensure that lawyers:
(a) exercise of all their professional duties without intimidation, obstacles, harassment or inappropriate interference,
(c) have the possibility of exercising their functions without being threatened with prosecutions or administrative, financial or other sanctions for any of their acts within the framework of their established professional duties, rules and ethics of the profession of lawyer.
17. The authorities must adequately protect lawyers whose security is threatened by the performance of their duties.
18. In the performance of their duties lawyers must not be identified with their clients or their affairs. "
LWB calls on the competent authorities to conduct a transparent disciplinary and criminal investigation into the order given to arbitrarily arrest, transfer and detain lawyers in the course of them exercising their duties, and on the decision to enforce on them the flagrante delictum procedure and prosecute them because of them exercising their duties.
LWB calls on the competent authorities to examine whether the health of lawyers was protected in the context of this police operation.
LWB calls on all the competent authorities to lead the perpetrators to account and to ensure that lawyers in Greece will be able to bring forth activities in the defense of civilians and their rights without undue hindrance and harassment, and that their rights and integrity will be adequately protected.
LWB calls on lawyers to diffuse to the Hellenic Police, the supervising Ministers and to the Prime Minister, the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, with a request for Greece to re-align with its positive obligations, as reflected in international standards for the treatment of lawyers.
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