SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: Aamer Anwar was speaking ahead of the release of a new BBC Scotland series on his legal firm.
He is one of Scotland’s leading lawyers, a friend of the First Minister and the face of high-profile cases from Sheku Bayoh to the Scottish Covid Inquiry.
Last week Anwar, 55, was at court for the review of Sean Hogg’s rape conviction in 2018. Hogg was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl and sentenced to 270 hours of unpaid work. He asked: “Judges are white, middle class, university educated. Are they somehow immune to rape myths? Somehow are they not prejudiced, homophobic or racist? Are they robots?
Anwar stressed: “The system does not pay for people to take on families’ cases and fight for them.” He continues to waive his fee for important cases and estimates 60 to 70 per cent of his work is unpaid. “There is no Legal Aid in 80 per cent of cases of families whose parents die in police custody or in prison. Sheku Bayoh’s family were surrounded by 26 lawyers. And it’s a David and Goliath battle even if you do get funding.”
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