DYYAD CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION CRACKDOWN ON LAWYERS IN GREECE - ARBITRARY ARREST & DETENTION OF LAWYERS FOR (AND DURING) THEM PERFORMING THEIR DUTIES

 

GREECE, ATHENS, 8 DECEMBER 2020

ORDER FOR ARBITRARY ARREST, ARBITRARY DETENTION, ADMINISTRATIVE AND JUDICIAL HARASSMENT OF LAWYERS DURING THE EXERCISE OF THEIR DUTIES

The Network for the Support of Human Rights Defenders (DYYAD) 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.

DYYAD 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.

The decision was allegedly based on a medical statement issued by the medical experts, of which lawyer Mr.Kampagiannis, member of the Board of the Athens Bar Association, had requested a copy, via submitting a written eponymous request on the previous day. The request has not been answered until today.

In order to avert such a tribute of by-passers, thousands of policemen were sent by the Government 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, 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.

Their capacity for being on spot had been clear: they introduced themselves to the police as lawyers right upfront; they were initially trying to mediate towards the police for upholding their clients’ rights; they were then intervening to prevent the exposure of their clients to danger of life and integrity caused by the policemen’s acts and omissions; they then struggled  to prevent a series of human rights violations of their clients, who were being victimized by the police, under what appears to have been an order for a crackdown not only on citizens, but on the professional defenders of their rights as well.

The lawyers were then arbitrarily detained for hours.

They were initially informed that they (and the persons whose rights they were defending) would not be arrested but “simply adducted to the police directorate for a check”. Which they protested, not only because the conditions of the transfer were dangerous for the adducted persons’ life, dignity and integrity, but also because an adduction is justified under conditions, such as when the person cannot present an identity document.

It later became clear, though, that the citizens, as well as the lawyers, were not adducted, 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. Mr.Kampagiannis reminded that he carried the “Attestation A” verifying that he was moving for work purposes.

The lawyers protested a breach of the Lawyer’s Honor by the police 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.

Reporters were allowed to leave “because they were working there”. Among those who had a professional function on the spot, it was only for lawyers that the order for arrest was given, which proves the incentive of a targeted crackdown on lawyers, alongside civilians.

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DYYAD notes that the Athens Bar Association has issued a protest about the treatment of the 2 arrested lawyers. DYYAD notes again that, 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".

DYYAD decries 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 of the fact that 56 out of the 63 Bar Associations of Greece have seized the European Committee for Social Rights, with a collective complaint registered on 28 May 2020. It concerns Articles 11 (the right to protection of health), 13 (the right to social and medical assistance), 16 (the right of the family to social, legal and economic protection),17 (the right of children and young persons to social, legal and economic protection), 30 (the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion), 31§2 (the right to housing) and E (non-discrimination). The Bar alleges that the Greek authorities, by excluding lawyers from social support given to all “non-scientist” self-employed who were recognized as “affected” by the Covid-19 pandemic or providing inferior and inadequate social protection to them than to all other affected professional groups, has deprived lawyers of their right to work, to work in a safe environment, to the protection of their health, to social security, to social assistance, to benefit from social welfare services, to social, legal, and economic protection for their families, to social, legal, and economic protection for their children, and their right to housing in breach of the abovementioned provisions of the Charter.

DYYAD has also noted and decried in public previously issued arrest warrants on high profile lawyers, the exchange of a series of polarized announcements during the past few years between the Union of Judges and Prosecutors and Bar Associations, the attempts of the Administration, but even also from members of the Judiciary to undermine the Function of Lawyers in a democratic society, and the competence of the Bar's President (i.e. Larissa’s) or Board members (i.e. Athens’) to defend in casu human rights such as the right of the defendant to choose a counsel of his choice and the dignity of the lawyers' Function.

DYYAD highlights the quite recent (29/3/2019) Round Table 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 representing applicants before the ECtHR have themselves been subjected to harassment by law enforcement authorities in Greece" and "fiscal harassment faced by lawyers working for the protection of human rights and engaged in litigation...").

The Commissioner also noted that "In a growing number of European countries...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.", and referred to some Bar Associations' activities that were used to obstruct lawyers for performing their duties and Function: "This move is perceived as part of an intensifying crackdown on a number of lawyers, impeding their possibility to exercise their profession. Since the end of 2017, lawyers working on sensitive cases have been reporting the use of false accusations and smear campaigns against them, with disbarment being yet another method of obstruction and retaliation. Judicial and administrative harassment has reportedly been experienced by lawyers" (par.18).

The Commissioner concluded that  lawyers " are still subjected to attacks, violence, intimidation, judicial harassment and other forms of reprisals in many European countries." (par.71), took note of reports that "governments are becoming increasingly likely to disregard their human rights obligations determined by international and European mechanisms of human rights protection, including the Council of Europe, without giving due consideration to the potential consequences."

The Commissioner noted that this represents a further obstacle to guaranteeing a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders and urged Council of Europe member states to "recommit to the standards they agreed to years ago and ensure a political, legal and public environment where human rights defenders can work freely and safely." 

DYYAD notes that another case (Koutra and Katzaki v. Greece) of a lawyer’s arbitrary detention, along with her transgender client in a Thessaloniki police station, led to global decry and interventions by the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE, and international organizations such as the European Bar (CCBE), OMCT, FIDH a.o., reached the ECtHR and awaits Judgment. In that case, 2 degrees of prosecutors had concluded that the lawyer had “voluntarily” (sic) entrapped herself in a police station cell.

DYYAD also takes note of the ECtHR's communication in the case M.C. v. Greece, which refers to the victimization of a lawyer practicing in Athens by the Police and the Prosecutor, turning her from a victim of police arbitrariness exercised in view of her lawyers' function, to a defendant in Court, while her complaint about the atrocities suffered by her remained completely uninvestigated by the Prosecutor. It also notes that this was considered by the Court as "a case of principle".

In response to all the above:

DYYAD 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. "

DYYAD therefore calls all stakeholders, including the competent Ministers, the Hellenic Police and private individuals, to ensure that lawyers in Greece will be able to bring forth activities in the defense of civilians without undue hindrance and harassment, and that their rights and integrity will be adequately protected.

DYYAD calls on lawyers to refuse to diffuse to the Hellenic Police and the supervising Ministers the UN Basic Principles, especially in such a critical period for the Lawyers' Function in Greece.

DYYAD notices the polarization between co-functionaries in the administration of Justice (Lawyers and Judges), the lawyers’ targeting by discriminative economic and social policies, and expresses its great concern about the current situation of lawyers in Greece and the rigid undermining of the Lawyer's Function by the Prosecutorial office and the Police.

DYYAD highlights that the enforcement of delictum flagrante procedure on lawyers and their arrest during the exercise of their duties are signs of a backslide which brings in mind associations of black pages of human history and other kind of regimes. Such incidents can arouse democratic consciences and terrorize civilians.

It is a severe deviation from the Rule of Law, to targeting lawyers. It affects the exercise of the Legal Profession and its integrity, as a whole, and is therefore warranting special attention and alert.

DYYAD therefore calls for international observance of the prosecutorial and judicial procedure's integrity and of the alignment of the different relevant authorities with their obligations under the UN principles, in order for impartiality and respect to fundamental rights to be safeguarded, as well as for further victimization of defenders to be prevented.

DYYAD has translated the recent CoE's Commissioner's Report in Greek language and submitted it to the Ministry of Justice, also re-submitting the Model Law on the recognition and protection of human rights defenders. It has requested a meeting with the Minister of Justice and a follow up meeting with the General Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, to put forward the need for legislation that will actively and adequately protect defenders and ensure to them a safe and enabling working environment, free from targeting, reprisals, undue hindrance, administrative and judicial harassment and threats to their life, integrity and honor.

DYYAD urges the Greek Government to, in the light of the recent events, urgently proceed to taking note of the Commissioner's Recommendations and refrain from further undermining of the protection of human rights and democratic norms, while urgently ensuring conformity with the guarantees for defenders and safeguarding their life, integrity and honor from any interference that is contrary to internationally upheld human rights standards.

DYYAD offers its members' expertise to the detained and/or harassed lawyers and/or to their appointed counsels.