- 20 37. The CPT considers that the right of a person taken into police custody to immediately inform a relative or third party of his situation should be expressly guaranteed. In this connection, foreign nationals should be provided with the address and telephone number of the consular authorities of their country. The exercise of this right could, of course, be made subject to certain exceptions designed to protect the interests of justice. However, any such exceptions should be clearly defined and they should be applied for as short a time as possible. 38. The CPT recommends: - that persons detained by the police have the right to inform, without delay, a close relative or third party of their choice of their situation; - that any possibility exceptionally to delay the exercise of the right to have the fact of one's custody notified to a close relative or third party should be clearly circumscribed, made subject to appropriate safeguards (e.g. any such delay to be recorded in writing together with the reasons therefor and to require the approval of a senior officer or public prosecutor) and strictly limited in time. c. access to a lawyer 39. Articles 100 and 105 of the Code of Criminal Procedure contain specific provisions on the right of the "accused" to have access to a lawyer. The interpretation of these provisions is apparently a controversial matter. The CPT shall refrain from entering into that debate. Suffice to say that is quite clear from the information received by the Committee's delegation that, in practice, a person arrested by the police is not entitled to have access to a lawyer until he is charged with an offence by the police, an event which might occur up to 24 hours (cf. paragraph 14) after the time of arrest. Police officers spoken to justified this position on the ground that until such time as an arrested person was charged with an offence, he was not an "accused" within the meaning of the Code of Criminal Procedure. 40. In this connection, the CPT wishes to stress that the period immediately following deprivation of liberty is when the risk of intimidation and ill-treatment is the greatest. The Committee therefore considers it essential that a detainee's right to have access to a lawyer be guaranteed as from the very outset of his detention by the police. The CPT recognises that in order to protect the interests of justice, it may exceptionally be necessary to delay the right of access to a particular lawyer chosen by the detainee. However, this should not result in the right of access to a lawyer being totally denied during the period in question. In such cases, access to another independent lawyer who can be trusted not to jeopardise the legitimate interests of the police investigation should be arranged.