Former prosecutors were offended by "interrogation" of the Committee

On 28 October 2015 a regular meeting of the Committee for Protection of Professional Rights of Attorneys and Implementation of Guarantees of Practice of Law of the Bar Council of the Kyiv region took place.

The event was attended by Mr Taras Lamakh, Chairman of the UNBA Committee for the Protection of Professional Rights of Attorneys and Implementation of Guarantees of Practice of Law, Mr Andriy Grubskyy, Deputy Chairman of the UNBA Committee for the Protection of Professional Rights of Attorneys and Implementation of Guarantees of Practice of Law, Mrs Maria Ostrovska, Deputy Chairman of the Committee in the Kyiv region, and other members of the Committee.

Special attention was paid to the complaints of attorneys about violation of their professional rights in criminal proceedings. Thus, attorney L. reported that in the Pecherskyy District Court of Kyiv, unspecified individuals who probably acted on behalf of the State Escort Service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, unlawfully applied physical pressure on the attorney and defendants. The events were video recorded by a mobile device and submitted to the Committee. Also, a number of breaches were committed by a judge B. In particular, only a prosecutor was invited to the court hearing, while none of the defenders of the five defendants were informed about the scheduled procedural acts; the court ignored any motions made by the attorney, and no reaction followed to the illegal acts of the police escort. Following the discussion, the Committee expressed the need to support the attorney by way of filing inquiries and requests to the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

The meeting was also attended by the attorney V., who was attacked in August 2015, during which he received a stab wound. The advocate informed the members of the Committee about the prolonged inaction by the Boryspil police, despite his procedural motions in the capacity of the victim and the active stance of the Committee and the Bar Council of the Kyiv region aimed at protecting his rights. The Committee decided to continue to support the attorney, including through possible holding of public professional protests against ignoring of the law by the Boryspil local police district.

The high commitment in initiating by attorneys of the Kyiv region of admission to the Committee should also be noted, the highest initiative being exhibited by the former law enforcement officers, mostly prosecutors. The majority of the Committee members did not object to the admission to the Committee of former pre-trial investigation officers. At the same time, already during the last meeting a number of members of the Committee had objected against such persons being included into the Committee, because some of the candidates received the status of an attorney only a few months ago, having served for many years in the investigation bodies before that. As Deputy Chairman Maria Ostrovska commented for the web-site of the Ukrainian National Bar Association, "There are no grounds for confidence that the yesterday’s law-enforcement officers will sincerely and professionally protect the guarantees of practice of law. Incidentally, following the interviews several candidates have themselves withdrawn their applications for becoming a Committee member, having been offended by the so-called "interrogation" during the meeting. Perhaps, it was not easy for the former courageous prosecutors to find themselves in the role of the "interrogated", even though in contrast to the common practice of the law enforcement authorities, the members of the Committee did not put pressure or make threats during the interview…".

Mrs Ganna Zosymenko, member of the Committee, drew the colleagues’ attention to the fact that some of the candidates used to apply for the protection of their own professional rights, while submitting unreliable information and ignoring arrangements with the Committee about the plan of work. The Committee members expressed themselves about the unacceptability of such behavior and abuse by the attorneys of the rights to apply to the Committee, called for the respect for labour of every member of the Committee for the effective implementation of guarantees of practice of law.