Attendees heard the following emailed message from Devin Theriot-Orr, a Washington Lawyer working in Pakistan:
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Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 3:59 AM
To: Concannon, Eileen
Subject: KCBA support for Pakistan's lawyers and judges
Hi Eileen,
I don't think we've met, but I'm a lawyer from the Seattle area currently living and working in Pakistan. I heard that KCBA was holding a protest rally today and I just wanted to tell you that these rallies really do make the news here and give a positive boost to people's morale.
It's so important for lawyers everywhere to stand in solidarity with our colleagues in Pakistan, who have been on the front lines this year in pushing for the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary here.
Many of my friends are in jail, and there were reports today that one lawyer was tortured and is in critical condition in a hospital. With this backdrop, the support of the international community is critical.
Even more important is that people express their outrage to your elected representatives in Congress and your non-elected representatives in the State Department. Yes, the US has called on Musharraf to end the emergency and take off his uniform, but absent from these demands is any mention of the sacked judges, many of whom are under house arrest, or the arrested lawyers. If Musharraf manages to hold on to power to have his coup sanctioned by his hand-picked judges, it will be a disaster for the rule of law and create a dangerous precedent for other world leaders to turn to when faced with an uncompromising judiciary.
Please pass this email on to your colleagues in the bar association and send me links to any pictures from the protest so that I can forward them to my friends here. Please know that your actions do have an impact and that we need moral lawyers to be in the streets of the USA.
In solidarity,
Devin Theriot-Orr
Research Fellow, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan UWLS '03,
WSBA #33995
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