A prosecutor denied a lawyer who was a private defence counsel access to the suspect on the grounds that the lawyer was not appointed as public defence counsel

In their capacity as private defence counsel, a lawyer tried to contact their client who was in police custody on suspicion of a crime. A prosecutor denied the contact on the grounds that the lawyer was not appointed as public defence counsel.

A suspect’s right to contact with their defence counsel is absolute and applies to both public defence counsel and private defence counsel, as long as the private defence counsel meets the requirements set out in Chapter 21, section 5, first paragraph, of the Code of Judicial Procedure that must be fulfilled in order to be considered as public defence counsel. It has not been put forward that the lawyer does not fulfil those requirements. The prosecutor is criticised for denying contact on the grounds the lawyer was not appointed as public defence counsel.

The police officer who was involved in the intervention in question against the client, and who was in contact with the lawyer on the evening in question, is criticised for having asked the lawyer questions that were not compatible with the so-called one-room privilege and for having asked the client about matters relating to the preliminary investigation outside of a regular interrogation.