Lawman Keith’s deadliest mission

Keith Etherington

AN OLDHAM solicitor is embarking on a human rights mission to one of the deadliest areas of Colombia.

Keith Etherington is no stranger to danger after spending weeks in the Borneo jungle — but his latest project is potentially more perilous.

Keith, who works for Mellor and Jackson in Church Lane, will be part of a team from the Colombia Caravana Lawyers Group UK, which is working to protect lawyers and judges who are threatened or oppressed in their work.

More than 400 Colombian lawyers have been killed since 1991 — five of them in a six-week period earlier this year.

About 80 lawyers - 40 from the UK - will go to South American country’s capital Bogota this weekend to report and make recommendations to the Colombian Government.

Keith, who lives in Oldham, said: “This is a little different than when I went to Borneo, that was to help bring clean water to a village — this time it’s not spiders I am worried about, it’s bullets.”


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