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Detained ICC Lawyer Tireless Advocate of Fair Trials Profile of Melinda Taylor, detained with three colleagues in Libya.

By Katy Glassborow - International Justice - ICC ACR Issue 323, 15 Jun 12

There is something about Melinda Taylor that makes her stand out from the many o ther sharp, intelligent and enthusiastic lawyers she rubs shoulders with in The Hague. She shares their belief in and encyclopaedic knowledge of international justice. But it is the way she puts this into practice that makes her stick in your mind after youve met her. What sets Taylor apart is her deep conviction that in order for justice to work, the defence needs to be as robust as the prosecution. Taylor is not in The Hague at the moment, walking the corridors of the Internati onal Criminal Court, ICC, where she works. Instead, she is detained virtually incommunicado in Libya. The authorities there allege that she smuggled documents to Saif al-Islam Gaddaf i, son of the late Libyan leader. The ICC has accused Saif al-Islam of committin g crimes against humanity during last years popular uprising, but the Libyan auth orities are reluctant to hand him over. Since she and three colleagues from the ICC Helene Assaf, Alexander Khodakov and Esteban Peralta Losilla were detained in the town of Zintan on June 7, there ha s been no direct contact except for a brief visit from a small ICC delegation ICC officials cannot confirm where Taylor is being held, by whom, or exactly wha t she is suspected of having done. They are liaising with Libyan officials on th e case. Rewind back to an ordinary day in The Hague and you will find Taylor behind a co mputer in the Office of Public Counsel for the Defence, OPCD, an independent off ice set up by the ICC to ensure an equality of arms between legal teams. When I met Taylor six years ago, there was a lot of excitement about the first t rial coming up before the ICC, the worlds first permanent international war crime s tribunal. Stories were flying about the "Congolese warlord" Thomas Lubanga Dyi lo and the atrocities for which he would have to pay at the ICC. I made the mistake of buying into this kind of language during my interview with Taylor. She patiently pointed out that such terminology should never be used in reference to accused persons before judges have ruled on their innocence or gui lt. It was clear that Taylor relished the opportunity to speak about the importance of defendants rights, when all the attention usually goes to the prosecution. The OPCD was conceived as an additional resource to support defence teams in cas es before the ICC by providing legal research and analysis. Insisting on the right to a fair trial for individuals suspected of committing t errible crimes is an unenviable task.

During our interview in the ICC caf, Taylor seemed to me to be quite alone in thi s vast institution. Most other lawyers were there to bring an end to impunity to ensure that those responsible for the gravest crimes imaginable were dealt with by the might of international law. Taylors thirst for justice had taken her alon g a road less travelled supporting suspects and ensuring they had everything nec essary to build a strong defence case to rival that of the prosecution. But Taylors enthusiasm was unbridled and unapologetic. It was clear to me that the health of international justice was in the hands of people like her, who were willing to be thorns in the side of the establishment. She had taken on the unglamorous, bookish and thankless task of trawling through motions, decisions and judgements to make sure that, in her words, everything s ingle thing the court does "factors in the presumption of the innocence of the a ccused". Nagging, petitioning and nitpicking and all to ensure that justice was delivered fairly. During Taylors tenure, the OPCD has grown in size. It is now headed by Senegalese lawyer Xavier-Jean Keita, and has a handful of staff. Taylor has remained at the front line throughout, doggedly ensuring that the jur isprudence of the court develops in the right direction. Now she finds herself in Zintan, detained on suspicion of unprofessional conduct . Taylors role was to represent Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in the ICC case against him a nd to ensure his rights as a suspect were observed until he appointed a lawyer o f his own choosing. In detention, she and her three colleagues have not been formally charged and to date have not had access to a lawyer in other words, the basic rights Taylor ha s dedicated her career to championing for others. Katy Glassborow was formerly senior IWPR reporter in The Hague.

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