Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney is to take on another high-profile and controversial case – the Armenian genocide of 1915 in which 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by Ottoman Turks. Mrs. Clooney is representing Armenia in a case involving Turkish left-wing Turkish Workers’ Party politician Dogu Perincek’s denial of the Armenian genocide in 2008 during a visit to Switzerland.

Mr. Perincek had referred to the genocide as “an international lie”. He was fined by a Swiss court, but later appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg that ruled that Switzerland had violated his right to freedom of speech. The appeal, however, is being challenged by Armenia, who has hired Mrs. Clooney and other lawyers. Mrs. Clooney will be working alongside Geoffrey Robertson, QC, that she is also cooperating with in the Parthenon Marbles case.

The case is to be heard by Strasbourg’s 17-membered Grand Chamber with the first hearing scheduled for January 28.