The Thessaloniki Bar Association expressed its indignation at the arrest of this lawyer during the exercise of his duties, characterising the arrest as “an insult to the exercise of the legal profession”.
The Athens Lawyers’ Alternative Intervention explained that the lawyer had been present in order to submit asylum applications on behalf of third country nationals who had arrived in the country and were being detained.
The lawyer was then arrested, accused of felony facilitation of unlawful entry into the country. The association accused the government of following a strategy to target lawyers as defenders of basic human rights, and characterised the arrest as “a feature of totalitarian regimes and a disgrace to the Greek state…”.
Respect for fundamental rights is one of the basic components of the rule of law. The role played by rights defenders is central to ensuring respect for human rights and holding the authorities to account.
Article 1 of Law No. 4194/2013 establishes that the legal profession and its practitioners are foundational to the rule of law. Decision of the Council of State No. 2128/2013 establishes that lawyers must represent and defend the rights and interests of their clients before the courts and, in general, the state authorities. This task is integral to the rights established by the Constitution, and therefore forms a basic component of the rule of law.
The arrest of a lawyer in June 2023 during the exercise of his duties and for reasons directly related to them came under heavy criticism from the legal profession, and was characterised as an intolerable practice in a state governed by the rule of law.
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