MADINA – Lawyers affiliated with the Lawyers’ Committee will not defend terror suspects under any circumstances, said Sultan Bin Zahim, deputy chairman of the Lawyers’ Committee, denying an earlier statement made by his boss Majed Gharoub that lawyers would represent free of charge needy defendants, including terror suspects, who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
Bin Zahim said he has turned down legal fees of up to SR1 million to represent a terror suspect.
“I will never defend a terror suspect,” he said. “Terror suspects are carefully and meticulously investigated and it is hard for a lawyer to find a way out for terrorists,” he said. Terror suspects do not actually need lawyers because they are justly tried in the Kingdom, he added.
Some terror suspects have been released when there was nothing found against them, he said. “Only those with solid evidence against them are still detained,” Bin Zahim added.
Majed Gharoub, chairman of the committee, said that he is the official spokesman of the committee, not Bin Zahim. The committee makes its decisions collectively, not individually.
“If a lawyer refuses to represent a terror suspect whether for a fee or free of charge, that is his own right,” he said. The deputy chairman has no say in the official decision of the committee in regard to defending cases, including the ones of terror suspects, that come from the human rights bodies in the Kingdom, he said. The committee signed an agreement with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) in this regard in 2008.
“All of the 1,300 lawyers certified by the Ministry of Justice have volunteered to represent needy defendants after studying their cases and legal standing,” he said.
There is an arrangement with all of the courts in the Kingdom to allow defendants’ files to be studied by committee members. “Lawyers on the committee examine these cases, and if it is true that the defendants cannot afford to hire a lawyer, the committee will assign a lawyer to represent them,” he said. – Okaz/SG