LONDON: Barristers in England are changing their speeches after the prosecution of a leading human rights lawyer for contempt of court has left many members of the Criminal Bar Association feeling “scared,” its chair has warned.
Rajiv Menon KC is accused of breaking a judge’s directions while acting for the defense in the trial of six members of the group Palestine Action for their part in a protest at an arms factory owned by a subsidiary of Israeli company Elbit Systems near Bristol in 2024.
Menon’s trial, which will start next week, has been criticized for being the first ever case of a barrister in England and Wales charged for remarks in a closing speech, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Charges were brought after the judge in the trial of the Palestine Action members, Mr. Justice Johnson, referred the question of whether to prosecute Menon to another judge, Mr. Justice Nicklin. This came after an initial move to charge Menon was overturned on appeal.
Nicklin determined that Menon should face contempt proceedings for his closing speech on grounds that Johnson’s rulings and directions were breached “knowing that his (Menon’s) conduct would create, or was capable of creating, a real risk of impeding the administration of justice.”
The judgement continued: “It is further alleged that, in the same speech to the jury, the respondent made statements which were capable of suggesting to the jury that the court was not impartial, in that he referred to the defendants being prevented from giving evidence about Elbit Systems, and later referred to Elbit Systems being ‘protected’ and ‘wined and dined in the corridors of power.’
“Those statements were capable of creating the impression that the defendants had been treated unfairly and that Elbit Systems had been improperly protected in the proceedings.”
Riel Karmy-Jones KC, chair of the CBA, said: “We have heard of barristers changing their speeches or being told to change them — including in cases where no direction has been given by a judge.
“And that really can’t be ignored, because people at the criminal bar have become uncertain and scared of what they can and can’t say; scared that somehow they might be — at the end of a trial where they have faithfully represented their client themselves — facing a charge of criminal contempt.
“It is starting to feel like it’s about the politics of the subject matter of the trial, rather than the core principles of how a barrister represents his client.”
Baroness Chakrabarti, former director of human rights group Liberty, called the move to try Menon a “terrible, capricious mistake,” and the judges involved had acted in “a very chilling manner.”
Baroness Kennedy, a fellow Labour peer and leading KC, called Menon’s prosecution “another assault upon our justice system (which) ought to be resisted.”
