CAT/OP/POL/CSPRO/1
Contact with the outside world
145. As for the recommendation concerning the safeguard that persons under pre-trial
detention (including foreigners) could be visited and call family members and other people
(paras. 114–117 of the report), each person under pre-trial detention, upon admission or
immediately after being admitted to the pre-trial detention centre, may exercise their right
to inform a relative or another person, association, organisation or institution and the
defence lawyer, competent consular authority or competent diplomatic representation, in
the case of foreigners, about their whereabouts by means of a written notification sent to the
address specified by the detainee.
146. The administration of penitentiary facilities grants the family and other persons the
right to visit a detainee under pre-trial detention, to whom the regulations on the execution
of imprisonment do not apply, based on a visit approval from the disposing authority. It is
also the disposing authority (the authority at whose disposal the detainee is) that decides, by
means of a relevant instruction, on whether the detainee under pre-trial detention may use a
phone. The detainee under pre-trial detention may use a phone based on the provisions of
the organisational and order rules governing the execution of pre-trial detention.
147. In response to the recommendation to ensure confidentiality of lawyer–client
communication, both via phone and traditional letters, and to remove any barriers in access
to and communication with a lawyer of persons arrested within investigation proceedings, if
there are any limitations in this regard, they are related exclusively to the need to ensure the
proper course of criminal proceedings. Detainees under pre-trial detention are entitled to
communicate with their defence counsel, legal representative who is an advocate or an
attorney-at-law, as well as with a representative who is not an advocate or an attorney-atlaw, but has been approved the President of the European Court of Human Rights’
Chamber to represent the convicted person before the Court in absence of other persons and
for correspondence purposes. If the authority at whose disposal the detainee under pre-trial
detention is, determines that a visit is possible but a representative of such authority or
another authorised person must be present during the visit, the visit is proceeded with in
such a manner as specified by the authority. The Prison Service grants the defence counsel
or the representative who is an advocate or an attorney-at-law the right to visit a detainee
under pre-trial detention, to whom the regulations on the execution of imprisonment do not
apply, based on a visit approval from the disposing authority. It is also the disposing
authority (the authority at whose disposal the detainee is) that decides, by means of a
relevant instruction, on whether the detainee under pre-trial detention may use a phone. As
a rule, any correspondence of the detainee under pre-trial detention with their defence
counsel or representative who is an advocate or an attorney-at-law is sent directly to the
addressee, unless the authority at whose disposal the detainee is, decides otherwise in
particularly justified cases.
148. As for the steps taken by the Prison Service officers to ensure proper translation and
interpreting services for foreigners, communication without language barriers between
officers and the staff of penitentiary facilities and detained foreigners is important at each
stage of administrative procedures related to the execution of pre-trial detention, penalties
and coercive measures resulting in the deprivation of liberty. Therefore, as part of a project
funded from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism for 2009–2014, the Prison Service
purchased for each penitentiary facility mobile language translation devices which respond
to the needs and specific nature of correctional facilities and pre-trial detention centres.
149. Additionally, the funds from the programme were also spent on English courses for
the Prison Service staff. The administration of penitentiary facilities has information
brochures in foreign languages for foreigners.
150. As far as Recommendation No. 115 is concerned, the applied practice in this regard
arises from the decision made by the authority in charge of criminal proceedings and it is
difficult to introduce uniform rules in this regard. Equally controversial is the
recommendation described in point 117. Contact between the lawyer and the client should
be free and unhindered, but in the case of pre-trial detention, due to the nature of this
measure, it will be always subject to rationing and registering carried out by the authority in
charge of proceedings.
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