Henri Leclerc, famous lawyer and human rights activist, dies at the age of 90

The criminal lawyer was honorary president of the French League for the Defense of Human and Citizen Rights.

Sixty-five years of advocacy for a “giant of the bar”. Henri Leclerc, a famous lawyer and human rights defender, has died at the age of 90, his daughter, Aline Leclerc, announced to AFP on Saturday, August 31. The criminal lawyer died “Saturday at the Paul-Brousse hospital in Villejuif following a stroke”his daughter said.

Henri Leclerc had stopped the pleadings at the end of 2020. “It is in the interest of the people I defend not to take the risk of continuing for too long. We must not make too many pleas.”he reported to franceinfo in August 2021. The criminal lawyer feels that he has always pleaded with the conviction that he was defending a just cause: “I have always tried to be honest in my defense, that is to say things that you believe in. And that is very important because it shows.”

A staunch defender of public freedoms, Henri Leclerc was honorary president of the French League for the Defense of Human and Citizen Rights. During his long career, he notably defended François Besse, Florence Rey, Richard Romand, Véronique Courjault and Dominique de Villepin. He intervened as a civil party in the Omar Raddad affair and defended Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the Carlton affair in Lille. “There is the truth of the facts and then there is the truth of beings: a man who has committed a horrible act, perhaps he is not himself as horrible as we believe, that can exist. (…) And the notion of truth must be established by a considerable effort of conscience and reason on the evidence”he explained to France Culture in 2020.

Like many other lawyers on Saturday evening on X, the former figure of the bar and resigning Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti paid tribute to his memory: “Dear Henri, you often said ‘if there was only one left, I would be that one’. With your passing, we have lost a tireless defender of freedoms whose commitment and talent left their mark on the bar and our entire justice system. I extend my heartfelt condolences to his loved ones.”

“A brilliant lawyer and fervent defender of public freedoms, he was one of the most illustrious figures of our bar. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”tweeted the Paris Bar Association. “He was beyond the greatest. He was the absolute lawyer. Forever in the hearts and minds of the lawyers of the Paris Bar.”also greeted the vice-president. Lawyer Eolas, very popular on the X platformfor his part assured that “all the lawyers in France” were “orphans” Saturday evening.