Where’s my lawyer? Making legal assistance in pre-trial detention effective The second part of this report provides an overview of the main findings and key challenges identified in each of the project partner countries regarding the effectiveness of legal assistance in pre-trial detention proceedings. For more details on the work undertaken by project partners, see above, chapter Methodology. 1. Bulgaria Main findings and key challenges In Bulgaria, the Roadmap Directives are considered not to apply to police detention, leaving persons in police custody without the defence rights connected with the status of a suspect. Thus, the Bulgarian criminal justice system shows significant discrepancies with the requirements of the Directives. Key safeguards, required to ensure the effectiveness of legal assistance in the context of pre-trial detention decisionmaking, are not transposed in the Bulgarian justice system.93 The main inconsistencies between, on the one hand, the period after the initiation of criminal proceeding and bringing the charges against the accused person and, on the other, police detention when the person is a suspect, are as follows: Right to access to a lawyer and legal assistance: In practice, suspects in police detention are, with a few exceptions, deprived access to a lawyer. ‘Preliminary talks’ are permitted without a lawyer even when the detainee has requested legal assistance. There is also no mandatory legal aid for vulnerable groups of detainees and no system for appointing lawyers where they have been requested. The pressure on the detainee to waive his/her right to a lawyer also plays a significant role in deprivation of the detainees’ right to a lawyer during police detention. Use of evidence obtained in police detention without a lawyer: As a rule, suspects are interrogated for alleged crimes by police officers during ‘preliminary talks’ without a lawyer. The information they share may be directly entered into their case files though testimonies provided by the police officers, which may serve as a ground for keeping a suspect or accused person in pre-trial detention. 93 Right to information: The legislation allows significant flexibility in terms of the moment when the detention order should be handed to the detainee. In practice, it is often provided several hours after the actual detention of the person has commenced and does not contain information about the factual grounds for the detention. Also, detainees are provided with a Letter of Rights (‘declaration of rights’) not immediately upon arrest but at a much later stage, leaving detainees without any information as to their rights. Also, the letter does not explain the rights in an easy-to-understand manner, which is adapted to the understanding of the detained person. If the detainee does not have sufficient knowledge of Bulgarian, neither the detention order, nor the declaration of rights are handed out in a language they understand that would enable them to make use of their rights. Detained persons cannot keep a copy of the declaration with them while in police custody. Right to interpretation and translation: Interpretation during police detention is not a right and is provided only for the purpose of informing detainees about the grounds for police actions and his/her rights. There is no mechanism in place for checking whether a suspect or an accused person speaks or understands Bulgarian. In practice interpretation of any detainee-lawyer consultations is not provided, creating significant obstacles for lawyers to effectively communicate with their client and to provide adequate legal assistance. Additionally, remuneration of the interpreters is extremely low which discourages professional interpreters to provide their services. Pursuant to Article 72(1)(1) of the Ministry of Interior Act (MoIA), the police may detain a person suspected of having committed an offence for up to 24 hours. Police detention measure as administrative in nature, regulated by administrative law, falling outside the scope of the national criminal proceedings. 33