intervew / NEWZFIRST

If giving legal opinion is a crime then all lawyers will be in jail: Shanvas By Sayed Isthiyakh5/11/12 You can be jailed for your legal opinion. This is the legal opinion now of human rights lawyer S. Shanvas of Thiruvananthapuram, who is accused of abetting an exposé against Kerala Police. He was arrested on May 1 and charged with conspiracy in the publication of Malayalam newspaper, Madhyamam’s scoop of January 21 reporting police surveillance of email IDs of 260 prominent people, about 250 of them Muslims. All Shanvas did was give his legal opinion to the newspaper reporter on his legal rights in publishing the story. Shanvas spoke to Sayed Isthiyakh of Newzfirst after his release from prison on bail. What is the case against you? This must be the first time in India’s history that a lawyer has been jailed for tendering his legal opinion in a case as per the law of land. Actually, it is the police who have violated the law – committing no less than 269 emails. The police illegally hacked the emails mostly of Muslims. But they have painted me as a conspirator only because I gave legal advice to a journalist friend. What did you argue in the court? I stressed before the magistrate that giving legal advice is part of our profession. If advocates are held responsible for giving legal opinion and then the profession itself will become illegal and everybody will be jailed by the police. What is your opinion of the police hacking of the emails? If the police hack an email ID, then isn’t it possible for them to send emails from that ID to anyone they want and then claim that they were sent by the ID’s owner? That is why cyber laws have clearly identified hacking as unlawful. What happens next in the case? I will file a case against the police for harassing me and causing damaging my reputation. I will seek action against the police for forcing me to part with the passwords for the three email accounts I operate. Being an advocate how did you feel to be in jail? Merely by being sent in police or judicial custody does not make one an offender. There is little awareness of this. As for being in the jail, I could see that anyone who lands in jail accidentally would be vulnerable to being influenced by the professional criminals there instead of being reformed there

Sunday, May 20, 2012 Last Update: 10:34 AM IST

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‘Falsely indicted in e-mail case’

Advocate S. Shanavaz, who was held in the police intelligence communiqué leak case, said before the Chief Judicial Magistrate court here on Thursday that he was falsely indicted in the case.

He also said he had earlier lodged a petition with the police cyber cell alleging that his e-mail was hacked by the police.

Shanavaz was remanded to police custody till May 9 for further investigation. The police team submitted before the court that Shanavaz needs to be taken to Kozhikode for further probe.

Meanwhile, advocate Mobin Akhtar, who appeared for the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) before the justice V.K. Shali tribunal reviewing the ban on SIMI at its sitting here, said the arrest of Shanavaz in connection with the e-mail leak cases was suspected to be part of a plan to weaken SIMI’s panel.

“Shanavaz was supposed to assist me during the tribunal sitting and his absence is affecting our works. The arrest is suspected to be part of an attempt to weaken our side,” he said.

Shanavaz said before the court that he came to know from a journalist friend that his e-mail was hacked. Subsequently, he lodged a petition with the police cyber cell.

This has now provoked the police to make baseless charges against him.

Human rights activists condemn arrest

Today's Paper » NATIONAL » KERALA

Published: May 4, 2012 00:00 IST | Updated: May 4, 2012 04:34 IST

Human rights activists condemn arrest of lawyer

Special Correspondent

Human rights activists in the national capital have condemned the arrest of S. Shanavas, lawyer and human rights activist in the State, in connection with the e-mail snooping case.

In a joint statement issued in New Delhi and released for publication here on Thursday, they said that Mr. Shanavas' arrest on May 1, on the eve of the SIMI Tribunal sitting in the Kerala capital, could not be lost sight of. Mr. Shanavas had been assisting SIMI lawyers in the tribunal for the past many years and was due to assist it again. “He had been a thorn in the eye of the Kerala police ever since he successfully argued against the continuation of the ban on SIMI in the tribunal headed by Geeta Mittal,” they said.

They pointed out that Shanavas' arrest had come after Ghalib's verses were blamed for instigating members of the banned SIMI and a children's magazine Umang , published by the Delhi Urdu Akademi, was cited as an incriminating material in an affidavit seeking extension of the ban on SIMI. Mr. Shanavas' arrest was an attack on the very process of law and an attempt to stifle the voice of dissent. “Targeting and implicating lawyers in spurious cases encroaches upon the right to access legal aid without fear. It is a clear attempt to also demoralise and intimidate Shanavas' clients — many of them victims of a communal witch-hunt. We demand that he be released immediately and all his files and work-related documents be returned without any conditions,” they said. The signatories to the statement Abu Zafar, Ajit Sahi, journalists; Anil Tharayath Varghese, Delhi Solidarity Group; B.T. Venketesh, advocate; Feroze Khan Ghazi, South Asian Minorities Law Association (SAMLA); Gauhar Iqbal, social activist; Hany Babu, Delhi University; Imran Ali, advocate; Jawahar Raja, advocate; Kashif-ul-Huda, Editor, TwoCircles.net; Kavita Srivastava, PUCL; Mahtab Alam, human rights activist and journalist; Mansi Sharma, activist; Mayur Suresh, advocate; N.D. Pancholi, advocate; Savad Rahman, journalist; Shabnam Hashmi, ANHAD; Shankar Gopalakrishnan, Campaign for Survival and Dignity; Seema Mustafa, journalist; and others.