"Our first concern is the security of the lawyers because without security you can't possibly have a fair trial, if trial at all, and that's not been adequately attended to"

The statement centers a basic precondition for justice: the safety and independence of those who advocate within it. Lawyers are not incidental to fair trials; they are the mechanism by which rights are made real. If counsel cannot work without threats, violence, or coercion, the adversarial process collapses. Intimidation shrinks the defense’s capacity to investigate, to challenge evidence, and to speak unpopular truths. It breeds self-censorship, flight from representation, or token participation that satisfies form but hollows out substance. “If trial at all” underscores that insecurity can halt proceedings outright, through withdrawals, adjournments, and refusals to appear, or transform them into show trials where a defense exists in name only.

The critique that security “has not been adequately attended to” is an indictment of priorities. Authorities may invest in courtroom optics or procedural speed while neglecting the infrastructure that makes justice credible: secure transport routes, safe offices and residences, reliable communications, confidentiality protections, emergency response, and safeguards for families and staff. Security here is not mere policing; it includes freedom from harassment, smear campaigns, arbitrary prosecutions, and other forms of soft repression that chill advocacy. Without these guarantees, prosecutors go unchecked, witnesses fear retaliation, and defendants’ rights wither. Public trust in verdicts erodes, for legitimacy depends less on ceremonial solemnity than on the confidence that both sides can argue fully and fearlessly.

International norms recognize this duty. The Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers call on states to ensure that lawyers can perform their functions without intimidation or interference. Failing that duty does not just endanger professionals; it injures the community’s right to truth and remedy. Protecting lawyers is not special pleading for a guild. It is the minimal condition for due process, equality of arms, and the rule of law. Neglect it, and trials become theater, and justice becomes permission from power.