Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

(Magamed Abubakarov)

Magamed Abubakarov, a Russian human rights lawyer specialized in terrorist cases in the North-Caucasus, will receive the Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2013. Magamed Abubakarov will accept the award on 31 May at the end of a seminar called ‘Lawyers controlled, independence at stake?’ in Amsterdam. Since 2004 Magamed Abubakarov has been working on politically sensitive cases relating to terrorism, illegal detention and torture in the Northern-Caucasus, especially in the Russian autonomous republics Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria. Due to his work he is constantly threatened and intimidated. In December 2011, Magamed Abubakarov was hit by a car in suspicious circumstances and seriously wounded. Authorities refused to investigate the case.Magamed Abubakarov is defending several clients including an ex-detainee from Guantanamo in a mass criminal trial concerning the 2005 raid of government buildings in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. Allegedly, these raids by armed civilians were a response to the repressive measures taken against the mainly Islamic population in the Northern Caucasus. According to the government they constituted a separatist coup by Muslim terrorists.In 2012, Magamed Abubakarov was a guest of The Hague’s Shelter City Program for three months to enable him to recover from the ongoing intimidation he experiences while doing his job as attorney. In 2013 he returned to Nalchik where he continues to represent his clients despite the ongoing threats.Human rights lawyers from across the world were nominated for the Award from whom the expert jury Heikelien Verrijn Stuart, Theo van Boven, Egbert Myjer and Els Swaab chose Magamed Abubakarov.

Shahzad Akbar from Pakistan and Olga Hamadi and Gustaf Kawer from Indonesia were designated second and third place on the Jurys shortlist. For more information and to attend the ceremony, please contact Adrie van de Streek, Executive Director of L4L +31.6 262 743 90.

via L4L Magamed Abubakarov to receive Lawyers for Lawyers Award Lawyers for Lawyers.

This entry was posted on May 21, 2013 at 15:21 and is filed under human rights, Human Rights Defenders, L4L.

Tags: Amsterdam, awards, Chechnya, Egbert Myjer, Els Swaab, Gustaf Kawer, Hague’s Shelter City Program, Heikelien Verrijn Stuart, human rights, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, Independence of Lawyers, Indonesia, Kabardino-Balkaria, L4L, lawyers, Lawyers for Lawyers, Magamed Abubakarov, Nalchik, North Caucasus, Olga Hamadi, Pakistan, Russia, Shahzad Akbar, Theo van Boven