Page 29 - Report on the infringement of rights and guarantees of attorneys in Ukraine

Vadym Samoilenko
attorney
In January 2017, the UNBA received a letter from the attorney reporting that he had been
attacked and beaten by employees of the tax police of the Sviatoshynskyi Main Department
of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine in Kyiv, resulting in bodily injuries and illegal detention.
After the above criminal acts had finished, attorney V. Samoilenko was served with a
summons for questioning as a witness in criminal proceedings, in which he provided legal aid
to a client.

The conclusion is obvious: attorneys are questioned by investigators to
subsequently change the procedural status of an attorney to a witness,
thereby making their further participation in criminal proceedings as a
defence counsel impossible. In response to complaints that such actions are
evidently not allowable, pre-trial investigation bodies explain that the
circumstances of questioning of attorneys are not related to the information
obtained in connection with professional activities, although this is not true.

SEARCHES OF ATTORNEYS’ OFFICES AND RESIDENCES

Andrii Tsyhankov, Serhii Tarasyuk, Oleksandr Serhiienko
attorneys of opposition politician Oleksandr Onyshchenko
In July 2016, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine conducted a series of
searches of offices of attorneys in Kyiv. Procedural actions were carried out due to the
participation of these attorneys in a number of high-profile criminal cases. Since it was
impossible to obtain evidence of the guilt of an attorney’s client in accordance with the
procedure established by law, a pre-trial investigation body attempted to obtain it by
directly interfering with the activities of a defence counsel, seizing confidential information
of the attorney’s communications with a client, and openly neglecting the guarantees of
legal practice. During the investigative actions, the attorney’s files, documents and
electronic media, which are protected by attorney-client privilege, were unlawfully
examined, information from telecommunication channels relating to the content of the
attorney’s conversation with a client was secretly copied.

Oleksandr Havrilkov
attorney of Oleksandr Kolesnyk, Deputy Prosecutor of Kyiv Region

On 17 June 2016, NABU detectives conducted a 20-hour long search at Studia Prava Kyiv
Law Company in connection with the case of the "sugar" deputy prosecutor of Kyiv
Region. According to the attorney, representatives of the NABU did not allow him access
to his workplace, exerted physical coercion on him, and seized materials from other
processes protected by attorney-client privilege in addition to the information in the
"sugar" case.

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