On June 13, 2013 Oleksiy Fazekosh, Head of the Council of Advocates in Zakarpattya region, addressed to Valentyn Zagariya, Head of the Higher Qualification and Disciplinary Bar Commission, regarding significant violations of the guarantees of advocate’s practice by the staff of investigational department of the Department of Interior of Zakarpattya region during the search at the place of residence and conducting advocate’s practice of advocate Vasyl’ Koshelya on the grounds of the verdict of Svalyava district court made on June 6, 2013.

According to the information provided by the Head of the Council of Advocates in Zakarpattya region an investigator representing Department of Interior of Zakarpattya region informed Council of Advocates in Zakarpattya region regarding the necessity of the presence of a representative of the advocate’s self-government body in half an hour after the search has started. Thus Council of Advocates in Zakarpattya region was in fact unable to ensure presence of the Council’s representative during the investigation action. The search resulted in extracting documents related to advocate’s activities not only of Mr. Koshelya but of other advocates as well.

Valentyn Zagariya said: “Part 2 Article 23 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and the Legal Profession” in the part concerning obligatory presence of a representative of the Council of advocates of the region during the search and regarding prior notification of the Council of advocates at the location of such procedural action is imperative and is supposed to ensure the guarantee of the client-lawyer privilege as mentioned in the Law. Any actions of the law enforcements officials aiming to artificially deprive an advocate of the tools that are foreseen by the Law – client-lawyer privilege – will not be slip off the attention of the advocates’ self-government bodies. Each incident of this kind will result in appropriate reaction to ensure prosecution of the responsible persons as set out by the law”.

Head of the Higher Qualification and Disciplinary Bar Commission also announced that the enquiry was sent to Mr. Zaharchenko, Minister of Interior that requests verification of the legal background of the actions of the staff of investigational department of the Department of Interior of Zakarpattya region to bring those responsible to justice.