human rights lawyer - The African Mirror

Feb

2023

Kenya: Police officers jailed for lawyer’s murder

HUMPHREY MALALO A Kenyan court sentenced three police officers and their civilian informant to decades in prison for the 2016 murder of human rights lawyer Willie Kimani and two others. The case triggered outrage in Kenya, where police face frequent allegations of brutality and extrajudicial killings but are almost never charged. Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and their driver, Joseph Muiruri, were killed shortly after filing a complaint of police brutality, alleging that Mwendwa had been shot and wounded by police. Their bodies were later recovered from a river outside the capital Nairobi. The four defendants were convicted of murder last year.…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Farewell Thulani Maseko, the People’s Lawyer: Sharp Bro, Best!

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

TSHIAMO RANTAO ON 21 October 2019 at 2258hrs Thulani Maseko sent me the following WhatsApp message: “My Boet, I hope you are well. I am in your country, Botswana, in Gaborone until Friday to oversee your elections! If you have time at some point to catch up.” At the time he sent the message, I had already retired to bed, and so I only saw it and responded the following morning, asking him where he was based in Gaborone. He responded: “At an Airbnb called City Mews by Independent Street Dear Cde”. Unfortunately, I could not meet with him since…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Darfur: Amal Clooney calls for more charges

NEWS

TOBY STERLING HUMAN rights lawyer Amal Clooney has argued that prosecutors should consider additional charges of sexual violence for a man accused of atrocities including rape, torture and murder during the 2003-2004 conflict in Darfur. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is holding hearings on whether to confirm 31 charges against Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, who prosecutors say was responsible for atrocities as senior leader of thousands of pro-government "Janjaweed" fighters in Sudan. On Monday, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said evidence showed Abd-Al-Rahman was a commander known as Ali Kushayb who led attacks on villages and was implicated in more than 300…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Tributes for Priscilla Jana, “people’s lawyer” and political activist

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER MANY South Africans, among them political activists who were defended by Priscilla Jana against the brutal apartheid system, have paid warm and emotional tributes to the “the people’s lawyer” who passed on at 78. Jana not only provided legal services to the political activists but looked after their families, adopting some of the children whose parents were detained. Jana represented many political activists, including Nelson and Winnie Mandela. Rapu Molekane was a teenage underground operative of the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe when Jana defended him and members of the South African Youth Congress. Molekane, a diplomat and…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

George Bizos: heroic South African human rights lawyer with a macabre duty to represent the dead

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

KEITH GOTTSCHALK, Political Scientist, University of the Western Cape ADVOCATE George Bizos, who has died at the age of 92, stands in the pantheon of South African human rights lawyers and anti-apartheid activists. Throughout his lengthy lifetime, he doggedly used the courts as his chosen terrain to fight back against a police state that blatantly violated the rule of law. His lifelong commitment to human rights left a legacy in South Africa’s constitution and bill of rights. He knew that democracy is not a destination but a lifelong quest: eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Bizos was among a…