Category Archives: Journalism & Media

One Hour and Eighteen Minutes

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Here’s my latest blog for Huffington Post UK:

With the wave of oligarchs that continue to flock to London to battle out their grievances, sadly embezzlement scandals and corruption are associations we regularly make with Russia nowadays.

As Russia’s recent accession to the WTO has brought corruption in the country under renewed scrutiny, a play showing at London’s New Diorama Theatre has also shed new light on the lesser-known aspects of the Russian judicial system.

One Hour and Eighteen Minutes, written by Elena Gremina and translated by Noah Birksted-Breen looks at the run-up to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison cell in 2009, having been arrested after he stumbled across a cover-up by state officials to embezzle an estimated $230m (£146m) from the Russian treasury.

The timing of the play couldn’t be more poignant since on Friday 16 November the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, which will impose visa sanctions and asset freezes on 60 Russian officials implicated in Magnitksy’s death.

Published on 27 November 2012. Read on here

Chávez re-election unlikely to spell victory for the rule of law

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Here is my latest piece published in the IBA Global Insight newsfeed:

After a record 80 per cent of the population turned out to vote in the Venezuelan national elections last month, on 7 October it was finally revealed that Hugo Chávez, head of the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) was to be re-elected, this time winning 55 per cent of the vote, giving him a nine per cent margin over rival Henrique Capriles.

Although this is the fourth time in 14 years that Chávez has been re-elected, his lead in 2012 is considerably smaller than in the 2006 elections, when he gained some 63 per cent of the vote. As the Western media continues to cast doubt on the fairness of the elections, lawyers and analysts have questioned the significance of this year’s election results, and the impact they will have on the rule of law in the country going forward.

‘It’s worth highlighting that around 75 per cent of those that voted for the first time in these elections voted in favour of Capriles, which I think gives out a clear message,’ stresses former IBA President Fernando Peláez-Pier, Partner at Hoet Peláez Castillo & Duque in Caracas.

Published on 14-11-12. Read on here

Russia's posthumous trial of lawyer shows corruption is still rife

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Here is my latest article published in the Guardian:

This week it was announced that the Russian authorities are planning to resubmit a tax evasion case for trial. Nothing out of the ordinary, you might think, except for the fact that the defendant is deceased.

The accused in question is Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in a Moscow prison cell in November 2009. Magnitsky was initially detained in November 2008 on suspicion of assisting one of his clients – UK-based investment fund Hermitage Capital – evade about $17.4m in taxes. Although the original allegations were lodged against Hermitage, during the investigation Magnitsky discovered what he believed to be a cover-up for Russian state officials to embezzle an estimated $230m from the Russian treasury.

Published on 09-02-12. Read on here

The IBA Profile – Azizah al-Hibri

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Here is my latest article published in IBA Global Insight:

The founder and chair of KARAMAH – Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights was appointed to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in June 2011. Here she shares her views on women’s rights in the Middle East, the developments and implications of the Arab Spring and Western perceptions of the Muslim world since 9/11.

In March this year, over the course of some of the most turbulent days in recent Egyptian history, US-based charitable and education organisation KARAMAH – Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights – conducted three workshops in Cairo. While many other organisations would have shied away from tackling contentious issues on Egyptian soil during this period, KARAMAH took the opportunity to bring together hundreds of scholars and intellectual leaders to discuss Islam, the rule of law and women’s rights in the country’s capital.

Published on 06-10-11. Read on here

Siemens GC Peter Solmssen on governance, corruption and democracy

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Here is my latest piece published in the IBA Global Insight newsfeed:

Since 2006, the exposure of a series of bribery, corruption and price-fixing scandals at Siemens has led to numerous court hearings and multi-million dollar fines. Peter Solmssen, then executive vice-president and general counsel of GE Healthcare, was brought in to ‘clean up’ the company and firmly bring the issue of compliance to the table.

Solmssen’s experience and knowledge of how compliance systems work made him an ideal choice for the rather daunting task of general counsel and member of the managing board of Siemens AG.

Solmssen spoke about his experiences in a plenary session on governance, corruption and democracy at Session 480, ‘The Rule of Law in a Globalized World’, at the Salzburg Global Seminar, in August 2011.

Published on 15-09-11. Read on here

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