'Donziger asks judge to heed U.N. experts' finding of 'arbitrary' detention', 1 October 2021

Disbarred U.S. lawyer Steven Donziger, who faces sentencing Friday for criminal contempt stemming from his decades-long legal battle with Chevron Corp, is asking a Manhattan federal judge to consider a new finding by independent United Nations experts that his home confinement violates international human rights law. In an opinion first made public on Thursday, a panel of five international jurists concluded that Donziger's home detention for more than two years violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a landmark pact that guarantees fundamental freedoms, to which the United States is a party. The human rights experts, appointed by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, said that "the appropriate remedy" would be to "accord (Donziger) an enforceable right to compensation." ...

Rita Glavin, a private lawyer who was appointed to prosecute the case, said the U.N. working group hadn't reviewed the court record and relied entirely on a Donziger ally for information. "As a result, the many material omissions and errors render this 'opinion' unreliable and misleading," she said.

The U.N. experts' opinion says the United States breached international law by putting Donziger under house arrest for about four times the maximum sentence of six months that he faces in his contempt case. His home confinement in New York was prolonged by repeated postponements of his trial due to the coronavirus pandemic and issues with his legal representation...