Updated at 3:16 p.m., Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Hawai'i lawyers march in support of Pakistani judiciary
Advertiser Staff
Some 75 Hawai'i lawyers marched from the Hawai'i Supreme Court to the Capitol this afternoon, part of a national demonstration in support of Pakistani lawyers and judges ordered jailed and beaten in recent days by that country's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.Richard Turbin, advisory board member of the American Bar Association's Asia Division, was the only marcher here to wear a black suit, the same attire worn by most marchers elsewhere around the country today.
In brief remarks to the marchers at the Capitol, Turbin said the black suit was to show solidarity with thousands of similarly-clad lawyers in Pakistan who faced tear gas and police batons to protest Musharraf's suspension of that country's constitution.
"I don't have blood on my black suit like most of them do," Turbin said.
Hawai'i Bar Association president Jeff Portnoy read a statement that called Musharraf's actions "an unwarranted and historic attack on the rule of law."
Several Hawai'i judges privately expressed support for the march, Portnoy said, but added that "archaic rules" governing judicial conduct prevented them from joining the protest.
