Thursday, January 29, 2015

Amal Clooney takes on Armenia genocide case in European court

536474044 After weighing into the Elgin Marbles controversy and the imprisonment of journalists in Egypt, Amal Clooney is to step into another high-profile case – the Armenian genocide.

A century on from the 1915 genocide, in which up to 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by the Ottoman Turks, the newly wed wife of George Clooney will be part of a legal team representing Armenia in a case involving denial of the genocide by a Turkish politician.

Dogu Perincek was found guilty by a Swiss court in 2008 of denying, during a visit to Switzerland, that the genocide ever took place.

Mr Perincek, from the Left-wing Turkish Workers’ Party, called the genocide "an international lie" and was fined by the court in Switzerland.

He appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which ruled in Dec 2013 that Switzerland had violated his right to free expression.

That appeal is now being challenged by Armenia, with the case to be heard by the Strasbourg court’s 17-member Grand Chamber. The first hearing has been scheduled for Jan 28.

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