Jakobi calls for help over 'government- friendly lawyers'

The solicitor head of the charity Fair Trials Abroad has called on lawyers to help him in his fight against 'government-friendly lawyers' providing legal advice to British citizens in foreign jails.Stephen Jakobi accused the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of trying to ensure members of its panel of pro bono lawyers - launched last year (see [2001] Gazette, 14 June, 6) - handle cases potentially damaging to the government's foreign relations.

He also called on the Law Society and Bar Council to do more to stand up to this perceived abuse.

The government, Law Society and Bar Council all flatly rejected the accusations.Mr Jakobi said that despite assurances of co-operation, the FCO has repeatedly gone behind his back 'without permission or consultation' to appoint a lawyer in the trust's place.He said: 'We have been subject to flagrant attempts to insert a lawyer from a government-controlled panel acting in the interests of the government and not of the client.'He said the Law Society and the Bar should have taken steps 'to ensure lawyers' independence in any venture with outside bodies.

For some reason, with this government department, the representative bodies have lost the plot and allowed the FCO to manipulate the panel to the detriment of prisoners'.Lucy Winskell, chairwoman of the Law Society's international human rights working party, said: 'We don't have any evidence from solicitors on the panel that they are unhappy with the FCO's handling of it or have any concerns over how it is conducted.'Stephen Solly QC, chairman of the Bar Council human rights committee, said: 'I utterly reject the suggestion that we have been acting as government toadies.

It is an absurd suggestion that a member of the Bar would act for a person abroad in a way dictated to by the UK government.'An FCO spokesman said: 'We recognise that a panel lawyer will on occasion advise their client to take a position that conflicts with FCO policy or thinking.

We accept this and do not attempt to influence any lawyer's advice in any way.'Andrew Towler