Maldives legal teams ‘decimated’ after mass lawyer suspension, says UN expert
“This alarming mass suspension clearly did not abide by international standards regulating disciplinary proceedings against lawyers and protecting their independence, and I strongly condemn it,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.
09 Oct 2017, 9:00 AM
Legal teams have been decimated and trials could end up paralysed because of the mass suspension of lawyers in the Maldives, a United Nations rights expert said Monday.
The comments from the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Diego García-Sayán, follow the suspension triggered by scores of lawyers calling for judicial reform.
Garcia-Sayan noted that those suspended could represent one-third of the lawyers in private practice in the Maldives, and more than half of those licensed to practice before the country’s criminal court.
“This alarming mass suspension clearly did not abide by international standards regulating disciplinary proceedings against lawyers and protecting their independence, and I strongly condemn it,” he said.
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