Contact between detainees and their lawyers – the Ombudsman urges cooperation and modifications to the relevant Act

Press release:

Contact between detainees and their lawyers – the Ombudsman urges cooperation and modifications to the relevant Act

In many cases legal counsels have great difficulties to see their clients in penitentiary institutions because of a great number of strict regulations concerning entry. Often defence counsels are notified of investigative measures only hours before they are taken, so in these cases they can hardly or not at all participate at the hearings, therefore the right of detainees to due process of law may be infringed.

Máté Szabó, Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, has been informed by the bar associations that in many cases defence counsels are notified of investigative measures only shortly – a day or a few hours – before they are taken, and sometimes they do not even receive notification. In the absence of such notification, legal counsels are simply unable to perform their tasks. If defence counsels are notified a few hours before the investigative measure, they cannot properly prepare for the defence, so the rights of detainees may be infringed, in particular the rights of defence and the right to due process.

It is a regularly recurring problem that, owing to the great distances between penitentiary institutes and their seats, it is both time consuming and costly for lawyers to visit their clients. As a consequence, they do so as rarely as possible, definitely less frequently than detainees would wish them to.

Bar associations also complain that defence counsels have difficulties entering penitentiary institutes. Lawyers might have to wait several hours before they can speak to a detainee. The state of the visiting rooms is also unsatisfactory, in many places defence counsels have to speak with their clients in deplorable conditions.

Máté Szabó emphasises in his report that as regards contacts between defence counsels and their clients, one could take several practical measures which would not require important financial resources but would nevertheless facilitate a more effective enforcement of the fundamental rights of defence.

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has requested the Minister for Public Administration and Justice to review the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure relating to the notification of defence counsels.