Freeing the Innocent

We are proud of the work our TrialWatch initiative has led to innocent journalists, women, and minorities being freed from imprisonment after we exposed their sham trials.

Recipient of multiple awards including the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Gwen Ifill Award for ‘extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom’ and the American Society of International Law’s Champion of the International Rule of Law’ award, CFJ Co-Founder Amal Clooney has successfully freed clients even in the most challenging legal landscapes. This includes Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, detained in Myanmar following their coverage of the genocide of Rohingya Muslims, Al Jazeera’s former bureau chief for Egypt, Mohamed Fahmy, and former President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed.

At the appeal hearing of blogger and activist Myriam Bribri, her defence team used TrialWatch’s Fairness Report to demonstrate that her trial violated her right to freedom of expression. TrialWatch also released a video ahead of her appeal in which Bribri discussed the motivations behind her prosecution. TrialWatch monitored Bribri’s case from the courtroom.

In 2022 she was convicted of “offending security officials” for reposting and commenting on a video depicting police brutality and given a 4-month prison sentence and fined 500 Dinars.

At the 2023 appeal hearing where our report was quoted, her conviction was requalified by the Court meaning she would no longer serve time in prison.

In the below video, Myriam Bribri talks to TrialWatch about her experience and case.

Ahmed Manseri, an Algerian blogger and human rights activist, was acquitted after TrialWatch monitored and gave his trial a “D” grade. Mr. Manseri was charged with criminal defamation after he filed a criminal complaint alleging police abuse. His trial was marred with violations that TrialWatch exposed in one of the first cases to be monitored by an international organization in Algeria in years. The monitor reported “that the treatment of Mr. Manseri’s case differed significantly from the treatment of any other case heard that day” in that the judge took the time to ensure that Mr. Manseri’s rights were respected. And Manseri’s lawyer told CFJ they doubted Mr. Manseri would have been allowed to go home but for the presence of the monitor.

TrialWatch monitored the trial of Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni and released a report exposing her sham trial. She was then freed and pardoned following the international attention drawn to her case. TrialWatch Expert Baroness Helena Kennedy KC – Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute – graded the trial a “D”.

Ms. Raissouni – a journalist for one of Morocco’s few independent newspapers – was charged with the ‘crimes’ of abortion and extra-marital sex after reporting that was critical of the government and convicted after a sham process in which she was denied access to a lawyer.

Journalist and opposition figure Omoyele Sowore, who was detained and charged with conspiracy to commit treason after calling for a peaceful political revolution, was freed and awarded damages in Nigeria after TrialWatch monitored his trial and published a report on his case. The report found the authroities offered shifting justifications for pursuing the case and that the charges appeared to have been brought against Mr. Sowore because the protests he sought to organize were “at odds with the Buhari government’s agenda.”

Ugandan women’s rights activist Dr. Stella Nyanzi’s conviction was overturned on the basis of violations identified by a TrialWatch report submitted to a Ugandan appeals court. Dr. Nyanzi was prosecuted for posting a poem critical of the Ugandan President on Facebook in a trial which TrialWatch monitored and graded a “D”.

Polish LGBTQ+ rights activists who were prosecuted for depicting the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo on posters had their acquittal upheld by an appeals court following TrialWatch monitoring and TrialWatch Expert Professor Lisa Davis giving the trial a grade of “D”. One of the activists, Anna Prus, told the Clooney Foundation for Justice they all felt compelled to act in response to a display a church had put up for Easter which included a crucifix surrounded by wooden boxes with different sins written on them, including “LGBT” and “gender.”