E/CN.4/1995/34/Add.1 page 9 26. The newly adopted Constitution of the Russian Federation provides in article 22 that "arrest, taking into custody and keeping in custody are permitted only by judicial decision. An individual cannot be detained for a period of more than forty-eight hours without a judicial decision". The discrepancy between this constitutional provision and the 72 hours allowed the Office of the Procurator to initiate a criminal case provided in article 122 of the existing Code of Criminal Procedure is to be resolved by the promulgation of a new Code of Criminal Procedure. At the time of the Special Rapporteur’s visit, the State Duma was just beginning the first reading of the draft Code. 27. This situation has been further complicated by the recent Presidential Decree No. 1226 "on urgent measures to be taken to protect the population from banditry and other activities of organized crime". This decree permits an individual to be held for up to 30 days without criminal charges being brought. Furthermore, the decision to detain an individual under this decree does not require the consent of the Office of the Procurator. It was significant that not one official with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke was willing to argue that the decree was constitutional, although an official of the Ministry of the Interior stated that it was justified on the grounds of necessity. 28. As noted above, an individual has the right to have a lawyer; moreover, a detainee must sign a statement indicating that he or she is aware of that right. In practice, however, the Special Rapporteur found that many detainees were without counsel. Several explanations were given. First, a lawyer is simply beyond the means of many detainees and legal aid is so inadequate that assigned lawyers are either too inexperienced or are unwilling to act diligently on behalf of the clients to whom they are assigned. Second, there is a general disdain for lawyers among the prison population, which is not unrelated to the fact that legal aid is inadequate and that the bar or trial lawyers associations are perceived to be weak. Third, the Special Rapporteur received numerous reports that investigators and representatives of the Office of the Procurator frequently pressure suspects to confess. As will be described below, the mere threat by investigators of confinement in certain remand centres can be sufficient to secure the "cooperation" of suspects. As a result, the suspects perceive that an attorney is of little value because guilt has already been established by means of the confession. As noted above, the Special Rapporteur also received allegations from detainees that police and prison officials denied them the right to contact a lawyer or their families. 29. During his visit to the Russian Federation, the Special Rapporteur visited the IVS attached to Petrovka 38, Police Headquarters in Moscow, and the IVS at a district police station in St. Petersburg. The IVS at Petrovka 38 contained 40 cells capable of holding up to 165 individuals. Six of these cells contained 10 cots, while the other cells contained 3 cots. At the time of his visit there were significantly fewer than 165 people being held; a cell for 10 held only 6 and several cells were empty. The conditions within the IVS did not appear to be inhumane. Detainees interviewed, albeit in the presence of an official from the Ministry of the Interior, had no specific complaints of physical abuse, although one prisoner did indicate that he received verbal threats from the investigator. In St. Petersburg the