MP Sumanthiran questions denial of justice for Attorney-at-Law Hejaaz Hizbullah

COLOMBO (News 1st): Attorney-at-Law Hejaaz Hizbullah who is a brilliant lawyer has been denied justice for eight months now with no evidence to prove he is guilty of being charged, MP Sumanthiran told Parliament on Wednesday (Dec. 09). "What are you doing for eight months if you had evidence that he was involved in anything at all? You could have charged him with that?" queried Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) Member of Parliament - M.A. Sumanthiran, while claiming that false allegations were being levelled against Hejaaz Hizbullah. According to MP Sumanthiran, when Hizbullah's house was searched, authorities had even seized his case briefs, which is a violation of sacrosanct attorney-client privilege. "When his house was searched and he was arrested, they took away two of his case briefs; not even in a court of law can questions be asked with regard to communication between client and attorney, you know that very well. There are only two instances of privilledge, one husband/wife and the other is attorney/client privilledge. That's how sacrosanct communication between a lawyer and his client is," MP Sumanthiran emphasized. The Parliamentarian also questioned as to whether a lawyer can be blamed for crimes committed by a client later on adding if there is a connection, it should be brought to light with Hizbullah being produced in court. "Can't he have clients? Can't he handle cases for people who are later found to have committed other crimes? Is a lawyer to be blamed? Alright, even if you did that, in those files if you found anything you could've brought that to light. You could've produced him before the court. Nothing to-date," MP Sumanthiran told parliament. Further commenting, he pointed out that the allegations with regard to Qatar Charity and a school are both baseless as Qatar Charity and the said school are functioning without any hindrance to this day. While claiming that the state itself benefits from Qatar Charity, MP Sumanthiran questioned as to how can Hizbullah be accused of having been involved with it; "He is said to have got some assistance from Qatar Charity. Qatar Charity is still running, it's still involved. The state is a beneficiary as well. What is wrong with Qatar Charity? You can have it, you can use it, but you accuse him of being involved in Qatar Charity?". Commenting on the family of Attorney-at-Law Hejaaz Hizbullah, MP Sumanthiran said he has been denied of seeing his wife and newborn child, while free access to lawyers has also been denied, with a police officer being present to take down notes on the conversations between Hizbullah and his attorneys. Thereby, the MP queried the parliament as to how anyone can expect to be treated equally when even a lawyer himself is denied the legal privileges and treated poorly. "I'm picking one emblematic case to show how many more thousands are suffering like this. I'm picking that case because he is a lawyer. If you treat a lawyer like that, how do you expect anybody else to be treated any better? A lawyer who is well known, a lawyer who is regarded as a brilliant advocate in our courts is being treated like this," ITAK MP M.A. Sumanthiran told parliament on Wednesday (Dec. 09). [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1mikU04Rwg&feature=youtu.be[/embed]