fundamental fair trial rights. Arbitrariness while in police custody should be the subject of further research in a separate project which will provide insight into police practices through primary research and offer targeted capacity building, as well as policy interventions. Access to case file: • The Greek legal framework secures wide access to the case file.100 In practice, challenges exist in situations where the accused is still in police custody. Often, the police will claim that they have not yet transcribed the hearing, or one needs to access files from different government agencies, which is difficult without a mandate, exacerbated also by the geography of the country (mainland/islands). The low use and quality of legal aid: • Legal aid should be improved through policy changes aimed at engaging more lawyers in the relevant scheme. These should include improvements in the compensation process, which is currently riddled with bureaucratic obstacles and significant delays. • Furthermore, accreditation mechanisms should be in place for lawyers admitted in the legal aid lists for criminal law cases, which should include competence tests. • Trainings on the legal framework and judicial practice on pre-trial detention should also be organised in collaboration with bar associations across Greece. • Monitoring the quality of legal aid lawyers and a need for reforms of the legal aid system as well as the creation of a mechanism to monitor and evaluate lawyers. Alternatives: • • Restrictive measures are often used as an alternative to unconditional release and not to pre-trial detention. Also, a certain reluctance to order house arrest with electronic monitoring has been observed (there have been instances whereby the electronic equipment has been violated). An additional barrier in this case is the obligation for the defendant to pay in advance for the – considerable – expenses related to the measure’s implementation. Pre-trial detention is ordered quasi-automatically when the accused does not have a known residence in the country. The recent influx of third-country nationals in Greece, has led to a large number of non-EU nationals in pre-trial detention.101 It remains to be seen whether the intent to abscond required under the new law is going to be interpreted as prohibiting this type of decision-making in cases of lack of known residence.102 The lack of confidentiality of communication: • Recommendations The lack of confidentiality in client-lawyer communications was identified as problematic. It was proposed that privacy during the pre-trial proceedings should become a requirement in national law. An amendment of the current legal framework in compliance with the standards of the access to a lawyer directive should, therefore, be proposed and implemented. In the meetings of the national working group103 and subsequent roundtable events,104 the following main steps were identified in order to tackle the above challenges: Poor quality of translation and interpretation: Arbitrariness in police custody: • Another specific issue was poor interpretation services. A national accreditation system for interpreters and translators should be established, alongside a mechanism to supervise interpreters and translators and to monitor the quality of their work, as well as to provide trainings for them. • The criteria for admission to the relevant lists should be strict and ensure the good quality of interpretation for an extended number of languages. • At the same time, trainings for interpreters should be organised and implemented, perhaps through a collaboration between the Ministry of Justice and the bar associations. • • Disparity between law and practice: a main observation stemming from the research is that the law and practice of pre-trial detention in Greece are two different things. While the provisions applicable to the regime largely comply with the standards set in the Directives and the ECHR, in practice severe infractions are observed, particularly regarding police custody. Major differences in the ability of suspects/defendants to exercise their rights were observed depending on whether a suspect/accused was held in police detention. This essentially creates a two-tier system, where some accused persons are subjected to severe violations of their 100 Pursuant to Article 100 and following of the Greek Criminal Procedure Code, the accused is informed on the full content of the charges and investigation documents by the investigating judge when they appear for their hearing. They may, then, request a deadline of a minimum of 48 hours to provide their statement. The accused or their lawyer may study the charges and investigation documents and receive copies – the accused bearing the relevant expenses. The same applies to all subsequent hearings. The accused who does not speak or understand the Greek language has the right to have all essential documents translated. Any restrictions to this right are, in principle, temporary and due to practical reasons (e.g. the file is with the prosecutor). The possibility to extend the deadline for the hearing beyond 48 hours at the accused person’s request is particularly important for the effective exercise of the right to access the case file, especially in complex cases with large case files. 101 See general prisoner/penalty statistics provided by the Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights, available in Greek. 102 Article 286 (1) Greek Criminal Procedure Code. 103 The national working group was composed of eight criminal justice experts, four of whom are or were investigating judges. It further included one criminologist and three defence lawyers. The working group first met on 4 July 2018 in Athens, three follow-up meetings took place. 104 On 7 December 2018 in Nafplion, on 21 February 2019 in Komotini and 26 February 2019 in Athens, three roundtable events were held in Greece. Representatives from different legal professions contributed to the discussions, including judges, investigating judges, public prosecutors and defence lawyers. 36