Inside Police Custody 2 3.2.1 Lithuania The law requires that the letter of rights be served on a person at the time of their arrest or detention or, if the person is not arrested or detained, at the beginning of the first interrogation (which, in respect of persons not arrested or detained, goes beyond the requirements of Article 4 of the Directive). There is a national, standard, letter of rights approved by the Prosecutor General, and the list of rights contained in the letter of rights corresponds to those set out in the Directive. The letter of rights is available in five languages, in addition to Lithuanian, and if the suspect does not understand one of these languages, the law requires that it be explained orally by an interpreter, and that it should subsequently be translated into a language understood by the suspect. The letter of rights is both lengthy and complex, essentially reproducing relevant parts of the criminal procedure code and using technical language. By contrast, the standard letter of rights for use in European Arrest Warrant cases is shorter and expressed in more simple language. There is no simplified form of the letter of rights, and whilst the police have a general obligation to explain procedural rights, they are not under an explicit obligation to explain it, for example, to children or vulnerable suspects, nor to ensure that a suspect understands it. The Human Rights Monitoring Institute have proposed a simplified form of the letter of rights, but this has not been adopted. The observational research found that the police normally do serve the letter of rights as required by national law, and sometimes serve it again, or check that it has been served, at the beginning of each interrogation. However, in some observed case, the letter of rights was not served until after the interrogation had commenced, or at the end of the interrogation. Some suspects said that the letter of rights had not been served on them, or that it had, but that they had not been allowed to keep it in their possession, and this experience was endorsed by a number of lawyers. Practice was found to vary in terms of the time given for suspects to read the letter of rights. Some suspects were given as much as 15 minutes to read it, whereas others were given no time to read it. None of the lawyers observed addressed the question of procedural rights in the consultation with their client, and in the two observed cases involving children, the lawyers did not seek to explain the rights to their clients. 3.2.2 Slovenia The law requires that where the police have grounds to suspect a person of a criminal offence, they must provide information about specified rights, which accords with Article 3 of the Directive. Where a person is deprived of their liberty, a letter of rights must be served on them immediately. The letter of rights must be provided in a language that the suspect understands, but if it is not available in the relevant language, an oral translation may be provided, and a letter of rights in a language that the suspect understands served on them later. A standard letter of rights, which covers the rights specified in Article 4 of the Directive, has been prepared by the police, and it is available in 22 languages in addition to Slovenian. There is no procedure for dealing with suspects who cannot read, and no requirement for the police to ensure that the suspect understands the notice. In observed cases, the initial information was normally provided at the time of deprivation of liberty, and the letter of rights was normally served when the person was taken to a police station or detention facility. However, some of the suspects interviewed said that the information had not been fully provided, or that it was provided so rapidly that they were unable to understand it. This accords with the findings of previous 32