A group of around 100 lawyers in Mauritania said the arrest and incarceration of lawyer Abderrahmane Zerroug constituted a “blatant violation” of the right to defense and the independence of the legal profession, and asked the judicial authorities to reverse the measures taken against him.
The “Defense Defense Front” added, in a press release published this Friday, that Zerroug had been arrested after a live broadcast devoted to the case of his client, Warda Slimane, in response to a press conference organized by the prosecution the same day.
The press release specifies that the lawyer was arrested in his office while he was preparing the defense of his two clients, deputies Marieme Cheikh and Ghamou Achour, on the day of their trial, indicating that his office was searched and that his phone was seized before he was placed in police custody, then referred to the prosecution and the investigating judge who ordered his incarceration.
The association considered that the measures taken against Me Zerrouk were “null”, relying on articles of the lawyers’ code and the code of criminal procedure, and declared that the prosecution of a lawyer for opinions expressed in the exercise of his functions “constituted a serious attack on the rights of the defense and the guarantees of a fair trial”.
The signatories of the declaration called on the judicial authorities to “demonstrate wisdom and impartiality” and not to “plunge the profession into a climate of escalation and tension”, stressing that the immunity of the lawyer ” is not a personal privilege, but a guarantee of the right of individuals and institutions to defense.
The group stressed that “the harassment of any lawyer in the exercise of his profession or because of it constitutes an attack against all lawyers”, affirming its attachment to what it described as legal and institutional to defend the independence and dignity of the profession.
