Just add this to the list of reasons why Amal Clooney took home the top honor in Barbara Walters' annual 10 Most Fascinating People of 2014 special.
The London-based lawyer, who just so happens to be married to Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney, revealed in an interview with The Guardian that she was nearly arrested in Egypt for speaking out against the country's judicial system following the arrest of three of her clients.
Amal published a report criticizing the Egyptian government following the conviction of three Al Jazeera journalists who were each sentenced to a minimum of seven years in prison for speaking out against Egypt.
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"When I went to launch the report, first of all they stopped us from doing it in Cairo, " she said in an interview with The Guardian. "They said: 'Does the report criticize the army, the judiciary, or the government?' We said: 'Well, yes.' They said: 'Well then, you’re risking arrest.'"
Despite the stern warning, Clooney risked arrest and went forward with the report and suggested that Egypt stop allowing officials to pick judges for high profile cases.
"That recommendation wasn’t followed, and we’ve seen the results of that in this particular case where you had a handpicked panel led by a judge who is known for dispensing brutal verdicts," she revealed. "And this one was no different.”
The three men are currently awaiting a retrial with a different judge, but Amal isn't confident the outcome will be any different.
"If the idea is: well, there were errors and now there's going to be a retrial, but then the retrial operates on the same basis as the original one, that doesn’t really mean much," she said. "We have to continue and double our efforts to achieve his release in other ways. Unfortunately we have to conclude that we can’t rely on these Egyptian court processes to achieve a fair or swift result." (The Guardian)