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CCBE report on lawyers facing threats

The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has published its report on threatening behaviour and aggression towards lawyers in the course of their work.

The CCBE represents the Bars and Law Societies of 46 countries and, through them, more than one million European lawyers.

The CCBE has said that the findings, combined with data on the rising instances of threats and violence across Europe, reflect an urgent need for measures to protect lawyers and ensure their essential role in upholding justice, fundamental rights, and the rule of law.

The CCBE added that lawyers in fields such as immigration, criminal defence, and human rights had been repeatedly targeted, receiving threats, enduring physical attacks, and facing pressure from public rhetoric.

In this context, the CCBE strongly supports the need for robust protective measures, as well as the future adoption of the European Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer.

In August, a client who admitted trying to murder his own solicitor in his Glasgow office was jailed for 11 years.

Asylum-seeker Esayas Neguse stabbed his lawyer Muhammad Shoaib in the neck and body in September 2022.

When two colleagues tried to intervene, he headbutted one and bit the hand of the other.

Permanent injuries

In sentencing, Judge Lord Colbeck said the Eritrean national, who was an asylum-seeker, had intended to kill a solicitor who was trying to represent him, and caused severe and permanent injuries.

Neguse had arrived without an appointment but Shoaib had nevertheless agreed to see him.

The publication of the report was in tandem with Human Rights day (10 December).