The International Association of Democratic Lawyers has denounced the detention and deportation of its Deputy Secretary-General Charlotte Kates in Athens, accusing Germany and Greece of weaponizing Schengen bans to silence pro-Palestinian advocacy.
The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) has condemned the detention and deportation of its Deputy Secretary-General, Charlotte Kates, at Athens International Airport on September 22, calling the incident a “stark affront” to basic rights and part of a wider European campaign to silence pro-Palestinian advocacy.
According to the IADL, Kates was stopped upon arrival in Athens and informed that her entry into Greece was blocked under a Schengen-wide ban imposed by Germany in August. The organization noted that Kates has not visited Germany in more than six years and that she was given “no explanation, judicial order, or due process” before being held overnight and expelled the next day.
“This is not an isolated bureaucratic error,” the IADL said in a statement. “It is part of a wider European practice of weaponising Schengen restrictions to intimidate and silence pro-Palestinian voices—lawyers, human-rights defenders, and activists alike.”
The group accused the Greek authorities of “enforcing Germany’s ban without question,” thereby exposing what it described as the hypocrisy of European governments that “profess commitment to human rights while collaborating in the ongoing genocide and dispossession inflicted on the Palestinian people by the State of Israel.”
The IADL placed particular responsibility on the German government, saying its sweeping ban was imposed “without transparency, judicial oversight, or any credible legal justification.”
“Germany’s direct role in this repression cannot be ignored,” the statement continued. “This deliberate attempt to export Germany’s domestic suppression of pro-Palestine speech into the wider Schengen zone reveals an alarming readiness to sacrifice fundamental rights at the altar of geopolitical alignment with Israel.”
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The organization said the measures strike at the core of freedoms of expression, association, and movement, warning that the European Union’s legal mechanisms are being “repurposed to shield Israel’s ongoing genocide and occupation from international scrutiny and to punish those who stand against it.”
The IADL issued three key demands: the immediate lifting of the Schengen ban on Charlotte Kates, disclosure of the legal basis for its issuance, and public accountability from both the German and Greek governments. The group also called for “an end to the use of secretive travel bans and administrative detentions designed to criminalize solidarity with Palestine.”
In its closing remarks, the IADL reaffirmed its stance: “We affirm our unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people and all who defend their right to self-determination. Attempts to criminalize this solidarity will only strengthen our resolve to expose and oppose the policies of repression and the international complicity that sustains them.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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