George Clooney's Wife Amal Brings Philippine Ex-President Gloria Arroyo's Case to UN
George Clooney's lawyer wife Amal Ramzi (nee Alamudin). 37, a known expert in international law, criminal law, human rights, and extradition, has filed a case against the Philippine government before the United Nations over the continued detention of former president and incumbent Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, according to GMA News.
Clooney reportedly filed the case on February 26 before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), a body under the UN Commission on Human Rights. In filing the case, she reportedly wants the UN body to persuade the Philippine government to release Arroyo, who has been under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City for a plunder case in connection with the alleged misuse of PhP366-million in intelligence funds of the state lottery firm during her presidency. At the level of the UNWGAD, Arroyo's case is deemed as a special procedure wherein all communications between the UN body and the Philippine government on the matter will remain confidential. However, should the Philippine government ignore the appeal, Arroyo's case will then be treated as a regular procedure that will be heard by the UN Human Rights Council, where documents and information regarding the matter can be accessed by the public.
Modesto Ticman, one of Arroyo's lawyers, in an interview with GMA News said: "The case concerns Arroyo's protracted detention by the Philippine government despite her age, health condition and the court's continued denial to grant her bail. She appreciates what Atty. Amal did. She's happy because Atty. Amal, who has international stature, is concerned about her plight. Now her case has gotten the attention of the UN and the international community."
Larry Gadon, another member of Arroyo's legal team, told GMA News that Clooney's interest in Arroyo's case began in 2013 and that the Oxford-educated British barrister even visited the former President at VMMC to personally check on her condition. Clooney, he said, is convinced the former president is a victim of political persecution after studying her case. For one, she pointed out that it was only Arroyo who has not been allowed by the courts to post bail even though her other co-accused in the plunder suit have been granted the same privilege.
Clooney has worked in the Office of the Prosecutor at the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon and at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She has been involved in several high-profile cases, including representing the state of Cambodia, the former Libyan intelligence chief Abdallah Al Senussi, former Ukraine prime-minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and is an adviser to the King of Bahrain in connection with the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry.