Cherie Blair launches ‘sanctions attack’ on Amal Clooney in Maldives showdown

Cherie Blair launches ‘sanctions attack’ on Amal Clooney in Maldives showdown

Then battle between the former prime minister’s wife and her fellow British human rights lawyer deepened amid a rancorous clash over the fate of the islands’ ousted leader

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Cherie Blair scorned calls by Amal Clooney (R) and legal team for sanctions to be imposed on key officials of the Indian Ocean state Photo: Rex, Reuters

In the battle of Britain’s two most famous female lawyers over the fate of the deposed leader of the Maldives, Cherie Blair has launched a direct attack on her rival Amal Clooney.
The former prime minister’s wife last night scorned calls by Mrs Clooney and legal team for sanctions to be imposed on key officials of the Indian Ocean state.

Mrs Clooney, a leading human rights lawyer and wife of the actor George, has urged the international community to impose travel bans and asset freezes in the campaign to release the Maldives’ jailed former president Mohamed Nasheed.

But Mrs Blair’s law firm Omnia Strategy has been employed to represent the autocratic government that helped organise the overthrow and prosecution of the country’s first democratically-elected leader.

And in her first public comments about the country, Mrs Blair has stridently rejected the position of Mrs Clooney, who is working pro bono on Mr Nasheed’s case.

“The call for sanctions is inappropriate and unjustified,” Mrs Blair said in a statement released by the Maldivian foreign ministry.
“Sanctions are imposed in exceptional circumstances to force compliance with international law, where there is a threat to peace, or where they are imposed in response to a specific policy. They ought not be used when dealing with a single case.”
Mrs Blair described her client, the Maldives government led by the half-brother of the long-time dictator, as “a young democracy recently undergoing a period of transition”.
Jared Genser, Mrs Clooney’s co-counsel, told The Telegraph that Mrs Blair was indulging in a “nice debating trick for someone without the facts on their side”.
He continued: “I’d ask if Mrs Blair believes that imprisoning dozens of political prisoners and levelling charges against some 1,700 people for their non-violent protests is an acceptable practice consistent with international law.
“We've never said, and there isn't a single independent assessment of the situation which suggests, that this situation is only about President Nasheed.”


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I think Cherie Blair has a point. We can't impose sanctions on every country whose politics we don't agree with. Because it would mean imposing sancions everywhere.

Russia for their involvement in the war in Ukraine and stealing the Krim.

Iran for their refusal to accept nuclear inspections.

Those are the kind of  situations where sanctions should be imposed.

But the Maldives no. There are more important issues in the word right now.