Maldives hires Amal Clooney to represent Rohingya at UN

DPA, 26TH FEBRUARY, 2020- The tiny island nation of the Maldives has hired prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to pursue justice for Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority at The Hague.

The Islamic country will join The Gambia at the United Nations’ highest court in its case alleging Myanmar’s army committed genocide against the mostly Muslim group.

“Accountability for genocide in Myanmar is long overdue and I look forward to working on this important effort to seek judicial remedies for Rohingya survivors,” Clooney said, according to a statement by the Maldivian government on Wednesday.

Some 730,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh amid widespread reports of mass murder, gang rape and systematic arson in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017.

Clooney, married to Hollywood actor George Clooney, represented Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone, two Reuters journalists from Myanmar who spent more than a year in jail at the military’s behest after uncovering one of the massacres in Rakhine.

She also secured a decision from the UN that the jailing of former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed in 2015 was illegal. Nasheed’s conviction was overturned in 2018 and he is now the speaker of the national legislature.

The International Court of Justice last month sided with The Gambia and ordered Myanmar to do everything it can to prevent genocidal acts against the Rohingya. A final ruling is expected to take years.