Drop charges against lawyer, say rights groups

Local and international human rights groups are demanding that the Lebanese government drop all charges against a human rights lawyer, due to appear in court on Monday accused of slandering the “military establishment and its officers.” "We are calling on the government to drop charges against Muhammad Moghraby in the name of freedom of speech," said lawyer Nizar Saghieh, a renowned independent human rights activist in the capital, Beirut. "Most importantly, we are calling for the whole judicial policy, which allows…such arbitrary condemnations, to be dropped." The charge hinges on a statement made by Moghraby to a European Parliament delegation on 4 November 2003 in which he criticised Lebanon’s military-court system and the inadequate legal training provided to judges, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International. Moghraby also denounced the ill-treatment and torture suffered by suspects tried before military courts in order to force them to confess. According to Amnesty, Moghraby was simply exercising his right to freedom of expression, guaranteed by Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Lebanon is a party. He could be sentenced to up to three years' imprisonment if found guilty. Amnesty noted that it had ample documentation of the use of torture and ill-treatment in Lebanese detention centres, often employed to extract confessions. Under Lebanese law, any perceived attempt to “undermine the respect due the nation and its institutions” is a crime. "There are many cases where citizens complaining about bad treatment received by the military apparatus were in return charged and sentenced under this text," said Saghieh. "And these people have no one to ask about them, no international back-up." “The military courts’ proceedings are not subject to independent judicial review, an essential requirement for fair trial," Amnesty stated. Lawyer Fawzi Bchara said: “Every time I had to defend a client –and all were civilians – in a military court, I ended up leaving. There’s no point – the case is already judged by people who are not even legally apt to judge." Amnesty has stated its concern that the case against Moghraby falls within “a pattern of harassment” against him, possibly related to his legitimate work in defence of human rights. In 1995 he was charged with defaming the state of Lebanon and its judiciary, based on a fax he sent to Amnesty officials, although the charge was dropped in 2001. In an ongoing case against him, currently pending before the Beirut Court of Appeals, he is also accused of impersonating a lawyer. There has been no response from Beirut so far on the case.