Sellini: “Justice Minister backed out and parliament betrayed us”

The President of the Algiers Bar, Mr Abdelmadjid Sellini, has pleaded for a “genuine enshrinement” of the free exercise of the lawyer’s profession, saying that the lawyer’s current statute is well below the legitimate expectations of the defense.

Taking the floor Tuesday at the Forum of the newspaper “Liberté” in Algiers, Mr Sellini affirmed that this statute was in need of solid contributions in terms of adequate training and smooth access to the lawyer’s profession, a profession which he described with regret, as a “hold-all”.

The President of the Bar of Algiers stressed that the Justice Minister had left the protesting lawyers in the lurch by reneging on his promises and that the National Popular Assembly had betrayed them by adopting a much controversial law on the lawyer’s statute without resorting to any serious amendments as called for numerous lobbying lawyers.

Mr Abdelmadjid Sellini further brought into focus what he called “the covert will to lower the level of the Algerian lawyer and to weaken the profession” by certain shadowy circles which have devised, behind the scenes, the so-called “divide and rule” stratagem on this vexed issue, as he put it.