Egypt threatens to arrest human rights lawyer Amal Clooney
Human rights barrister warned by Egyptian authorities after she exposed flaws in system that put Al-Jazeera journalists behind bars
Egyptian officials have warned human rights barrister Amal Clooney that she risks arrest after she identified serious flaws in the country's judicial system that contributed to the conviction of three Al-Jazeera journalists now jailed in Cairo.
In an interview with The Guardian after their appeal hearing this week, Clooney, a lawyer for one of the three, said they were victims of flaws she had earmarked in a report last February about Egyptian courts.
Written before Clooney became involved in the Al-Jazeera case, officials deemed the report so controversial that they threatened her team with arrest should they have tried to present its findings inside Egypt.
"When I went to launch the report, first of all they stopped us from doing it in Cairo," Clooney said. "They said: 'Does the report criticise the army, the judiciary, or the government?' We said: 'Well, yes.' They said: 'Well then, you're risking arrest.'"
The report, compiled on behalf of the International Bar Association, said Egypt's judicial system was not as independent as it could be. It pointed out that justice officials have wide powers over nominally independent judges and highlighted the control the government can exert over state prosecutors.
Among other recommendations, Clooney and her co-authors suggested ending the practice that allows Egyptian officials to handpick judges for certain politicised cases.
The three journalists - Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed, and Mohamed Fahmy, whom Clooney represents - were initially sentenced to between seven and 10 years' jail by the controversial Egyptian judge Mohamed Nagy Shehata last June.