$FFHVVWRDODZ\HUDVDPHDQVRISUHYHQWLQJLOOWUHDWPHQW $FFHVVWRDODZ\HUDVDPHDQVRI SUHYHQWLQJLOOWUHDWPHQW 18. The possibility for persons taken into police custody to have access to a lawyer is a fundamental safeguard against ill-treatment. The existence of that possibility will have a dissuasive effect upon those minded to ill-treat detained persons. Further, a lawyer is well placed to take appropriate action if ill-treatment actually occurs. 19. To be fully effective, the right of access to a lawyer should be guaranteed as from the very outset of a person’s deprivation of liberty5. Indeed, the CPT has repeatedly found that the period immediately following deprivation of liberty is when the risk of intimidation and physical ill-treatment is greatest. Further, the right of access to a lawyer should apply as of the moment of deprivation of liberty, irrespective of the precise legal status of the person concerned; more specifically, enjoyment of the right should not be made dependent on the person having been formally declared to be a “suspect”. For example, under many legal systems in Europe, persons can be obliged to attend – and stay at – a law enforcement establishment for a certain period of time in the capacity of a “witness” or for “informative talks”; the CPT knows from experience that the persons concerned can be at serious risk of illtreatment. 20. The right of access to a lawyer should be enjoyed by everyone who is deprived of their liberty, no matter how “minor” the offence of which they are suspected. In numerous countries visited by the CPT, persons can be deprived of their liberty for several weeks for so-called “administrative” offences. The Committee can see no justification for depriving such persons of the right of access to a lawyer. Further, the Committee has frequently encountered the practice of persons who are in reality suspected of a criminal offence being formally detained in relation to an administrative offence, so as to avoid the application of the safeguards that apply to criminal suspects; to exclude certain offences from the scope of the right of access to a lawyer inevitably brings with it the risk of loopholes of this kind developing. 5. Of course, depending on the circumstances of the case concerned, the right of access to a lawyer may become operative at an even earlier stage.