When Defense Becomes the Easier Target

Forwarded From Novaya-Europe: stories

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📈 The number of criminal cases against lawyers in Russia has grown one and a half times over five years. The state sees inconvenient lawyers as “accomplices” to crimes

The most noticeable are the proceedings against lawyers in political cases. However, the data show that the problem is much broader. At the same time, the ability of the legal profession’s self-governing bodies to protect the rights of their representatives has been noticeably reduced.

➡️ In more than half of the cases we studied, defense lawyers are accused of fraud, and in almost half of those cases, of attempted fraud.

According to lawyers, such charges are easier to fabricate, and the very fact of criminal prosecution makes it possible to temporarily remove an inconvenient defense lawyer from the case.

Criminal prosecution is only one form of pressure on defense lawyers: they are obstructed in their work, stripped of their status, and barred from participating in cases.

📍 Who lawyers get in the way of, and how the system gets rid of the most inconvenient ones, is explained in Novaya Gazeta Europe’s investigation.

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