The Bar Council of the Kyiv region will demand investigation of setting on fire an advocate’s office

In late January the Bar Council of the Kyiv region and the UNBA Committee for Protection of advocates’ rights and professional guarantees held a meeting, on which the increasing number of attacks on advocates was discussed.

Members of the Committee and the Council discussed a resonant incident – setting on fire of the office of advocate Taras Bezpalyy, member of the Committee, at Mykhaylivska Street, in the heart of Kyiv. The advocate himself insists that the arson is linked to the fact that he represents the interests of a victim - a family member of the killed ATO participant. Committee members expressed support to their colleague and the need to request law enforcement authorities to carry out an objective, comprehensive and prompt investigation.

The Committee also discussed separate threats and cases of gross breaches of advocates’ rights by the police. In particular, advocate Ganna Boryak submitted a complaint about the infringement of her rights on the part of a prosecutor, who pursues charges in the Kyiv District Court of Odessa. After she ignored the latter’s threats and demanded him to withdraw from the criminal proceedings, the windows of the building in which her office is located were attacked by fire. In her written request, the advocate sought support from the UNBA Committee during the next court hearing in Odessa in order to support her and to witness possible future breaches.

Mrs Maria Ostrovska, the UNBA Committee member, emphasized on the need for action on the part of colleagues for the protection of advocates and suggested that the Bar Council of the Odessa region should be contacted for an on-site corporate support. Committee members supported this proposal, while advocate Ruslan Kharchenko agreed to go to Odessa along with the colleague and to take the case under his personal control.

In addition, a number of breaches of advocates’ rights by the employees of the Security Service of Ukraine, who were involved by the Prosecutor General's Office, has recently increased. In particular, Mr Vitaliy Naum, the Committee member, said that the SSU officers conducted for a long time covert investigative actions in respect of his client, as a result of which his telephone conversation with the client was recorded.

Indeed, the issue of breaches of advocates’ professional guarantees by the SSU representatives by way of interference with a private communication between an advocate and a client has repeatedly arisen in the work of the Committee, but the prosecution has for the first time used a protocol of covert investigative action as an evidence for changing a preventive measure.

As the head of the analytical group of the Committee, Mrs Maria Ostrovska stressed on obvious violations by the law enforcement agencies of the law concerning professional secrecy and a failed demonstration of such a violation in a written form before a judge, which can eventually be used in the interests of the defendant in the adversarial proceedings in court.

Mr Taras Bezpalyy, member of the Board, suggested that the SSU Chairman should be addressed with a letter from advocates of the Kyiv region with a demand to stop the arbitrariness on the part of the SSU representatives, who violate the Law of Ukraine "On the Bar and Practice of Law". This proposal provoked a lively discussion among the Committee members, who agreed that such cases of gross disrespect of advocates’ rights and professional guarantees cannot remain without sufficient attention from the professional community.

As noted earlier, the UNBA is extremely concerned about the systematic breaches of advocates’ rights and professional guarantees as a result of unlawful actions by the law enforcement authorities; it will closely monitor the progress of further developments and will make every effort to return the situation to the legal field.