No lawyer can refuse to defend an accused: Jethmalani

New Delhi, Dec 14 (PTI) With certain lawyer bodies
declining to take up the case of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab,
the lone militant arrested in the Mumbai terror attacks,
eminent Indian lawyer Ram Jethmalani Sunday maintained that no
lawyer has the right to say he will not defend an accused.

"There is the express rule of the Bar Council of India
that no lawyer shall refuse to defend a person on the grounds
that it will make him unpopular," Jethmalani said.

"That is something that should never worry a lawyer.
No lawyer worth the name should even talk about this kind of a
thing," Jethmalani said and asked the legal community not
to worry about peer criticism while taking up such cases.

"No lawyer has the right to say that he will not defend
an accused," the eminent jurist told CNN-IBN news channel.

Asked whether he had been approached to defend the
terrorist, he said, "Has Kasab asked me? Let him ask me and I
will tell him. Let the Pakistan High Commission approach me
and I will give them a proper reply and advise."

Jethmalani said a lawyer should advise his client on
the basis of facts. "The lawyer's duty is to say that on the
facts I find no defence. The man is guilty on his own
confession... unless he instructs the lawyer, the confession
was obtained by some force or fraud or whatever, which is very
unlikely".

"A lawyer should be able to tell him (the terrorist)
that either hanging or life imprisonment is your option.

"If you want me to tell the court that you should
receive life imprisonment I am prepared to do my best,"
Jethmalani said.

On the terror attacks, he said, "According to me, a
person who thinks that by doing these actions, he is going to
heaven he should be denied the chance to go to heaven, he
should remain the rest of life in a jail in India". PTI JVN
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