Mr Omar Soliman > Guernica 37 Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Mr Omar Soliman

Position

Omar became a Guernica 37 member, following successful completion of his pupillage in 2020. He has developed a practice across a spectrum of chambers’ practice areas, with a particular focus in domestic and international crime, international human rights, immigration and professional discipline.

​Omar has a busy domestic criminal practice representing clients accused of a wide range of criminal offences and appears regularly in the youth, magistrates’ and Crown Court.

​Omar is developing an international law practice, which has included being instructed as a Legal Associate on the Haradinaj defence team at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC). In January 2022, Omar was admitted to the List of Specialist Counsel before the KSC as Co-Counsel.

Omar is currently instructed as Legal Adviser (with a focus on defence investigations) on the Abd-al-Rahman defence team at the International Criminal Court. Mr Abd-al-Rahman is alleged to be a commander of the Arab militia in Darfur, Sudan commonly known as the Janjaweed. He is charged with 31 counts of murder, rape, forcible transfer, persecution and torture as crimes against humanity and war crimes, arising out of the conflict in West Darfur between August 2003 and April 2004.
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Omar is also developing his extradition practice and played an active role as part of the defence team in the successful case of Slovakia v. Dunford-Wood [2020].

​He similarly assisted with an international child abduction case before the Family Division of the High Court.

​Omar has also been actively involved in the sphere of asylum and immigration law, including acting in an Iraqi asylum case, where the applicant was a former interpreter who worked with the British army during the Iraq war. ​

Omar is developing a professional discipline practice and has appeared on behalf of Social Work England in disciplinary proceedings concerning social workers.

Career

Prior to commencing his career at the Bar, Omar was a Caseworker in the Middle East and North Africa team at NGO Reprieve where he worked on cases and projects involving people facing the death penalty or execution in Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Casework included conducting interviews and family visits, legal research, drafting legal documents and UN submissions, presenting at UN bodies, liaising with local counsel, Government outreach and MP engagement and coordinating input from experts, pro bono lawyers and other supportive organisations and individuals.

​Omar was a caseworker at Legal Centre Lesbos, defending the rights of asylum seekers and refugees in Greece. Here he managed an extremely busy caseload, drafted family reunification and UNHCR accommodation transfer requests, conducted client meetings (in English and Arabic) involving asylum interview preparation, in addition to other legal research and advocacy tasks on asylum and family reunification cases under Dublin III Regulation.

​Prior to this Omar freelanced as a Barrister’s Assistant to various members with an immigration practice at Garden Court Chambers. In addition to this Omar worked as a Legal Assistant to leading fraud solicitor David Harbron at both Hedleys and Chivers Solicitors and as an immigration paralegal at Lambeth Law Centre.

​Omar has worked on several international teams, including internships on the Nuon Chea defence team at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh, and the Oneissi defence team at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in The Hague. Following these, Omar was a Legal Assistant at international consultancy firm Global Diligence LLP, in Paris, where he worked on an International Criminal Court (ICC) communication.

​Omar has volunteered at several different charities including Bail for Immigration Detainees, Detention Action and Equal Rights Trust.

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Languages

English

Arabic

Memberships

Admitted to the List of Assistants to Counsel before the International Criminal Court (ICC)

Admitted to the List of Specialist Counsel before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) as Co-Counsel

The Honourable Society of Inner Temple

Criminal Bar Association

Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA)

Association of Young International Criminal Lawyers (AYICL)

Arab Lawyers Forum

Qualified to accept Public Access instructions

Education

Executive Course in Public International Law, SOAS

BPTC, College of Law (Very Competent)

LLM in Law and Development, University of Manchester (Merit)

BA in Law with Politics, University of Manchester (2:1)