On March 28, 2014, the Ukrainian National Bar Association and the Higher Qualification and Disciplinary Bar Commission ( the Comission) sent an official letter to the Polish Bar Council regarding the violation of Mr. Denys Bugay attorney’s rights.

The letter included the detailed chronology of the criminal procedural law violations, which took place during the detention and further custody of the attorney, Denys Bugay. The executives of advocates’  self-governance bodies also appealed to their colleagues from the Polish Bar Council to respond to the situation regarding Mr. Bugay’s resonance case with appeals to the acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine, law enforcement officials and judges as well as to initiate all possible measures for renewal of violated rights of the attorney Mr. Denys Bugay, to assure full and impartial investigation within a framework of the law, with strict compliance  to criminal procedural law, rights and freedoms of man and citizen.

Oleg Beliaev, Executive Chairman of the Commission, noted: “We hope to get support from the European community, especially from Polish lawyers because we share not only history, but common traditions and mentality. We perceive Poland as Ukraine’s advocate in the European Union and hope that flagrant violations that take place in Ukraine, especially of the right of defense, forcing advocate to break attorney-client  privilege, identification of an attorney with his/her client, breaking special attorney’s guarantees provided in Article 23 of the Law “On the Bar and Advocacy” (absence of the representatives of advocates’ self-governance bodies during attorney’s detention, delivering notice of suspicion by unauthorized person) will not be ignored by the attorneys of fraternal country”.

Please follow the link to see English version of the official letter.