- 31 In the Committee’s view, ensuring the right of access to a lawyer in all circumstances is also in the legitimate interest of law enforcement officials. The existence of that possibility will greatly facilitate the countering of unfounded allegations of ill-treatment and have a dissuasive effect on those minded to ill-treat detained persons. Moreover, some detained persons alleged that they only met their lawyer during the hearing before the investigative judge, when bail or remand in custody was determined. Several detained persons who were provided with an ex officio lawyer complained about the poor quality of their work. The Committee understands that often lawyers are only appointed and informed on the day of the hearing and, in some cases, the delegation was told that ex officio lawyers explicitly advised their clients not to make complaints about their alleged ill-treatment or failed to bring the attention of the relevant authorities to the alleged ill-treatment (see paragraph 25). In the light of the above, the CPT once again calls upon the Greek authorities to take immediate and effective steps to ensure that the right of access to a lawyer applies for any detained person as from the very outset of deprivation of liberty by the police. This will require the extension of the existing legal aid system to the police investigation stage or when the suspect is questioned by the police, irrespective of whether the person concerned has formally been declared “accused”. If necessary, the relevant legislation should be amended. The Committee also recommends that ex officio lawyers be reminded, through the Bar Associations, of the importance of their role in preventing and, if necessary, reporting illtreatment by the police. 48. In addition, the CPT has serious concerns as regards the respect of confidentiality in the lawyer-client relationship. Few of the police establishments visited offered dedicated facilities to allow detained persons to consult their lawyers; and in those that did, there was scant regard for privacy. For instance, the room on the ground floor of Kypseli Police Station that serves for consultations between criminal suspects and their lawyers had a Perspex screen, through which the conversation was plainly audible. Detained persons and their lawyers were even more compromised by the set up in the “lawyers’ consultation room” in the Sub-directorate for Crimes against Life and Property situated on the 11th floor of the GADA, where the CPT’s delegation found a concealed video camera, which was linked to audio-visual recording equipment in the office of the Deputy Director of the Homicide and Kidnapping Unit.34 It goes without saying that this is a serious violation of basic safeguards provided for in Greek criminal procedural law. The right of access to a lawyer must include the right to meet him/her in private. Any consultation with a lawyer by a person in police custody should take place out of the sight and hearing of police officers. It should certainly never be secretly monitored and recorded by investigating police officers. Over and above to the risk that a person’s fair trial rights will be irretrievably prejudiced by this illicit police activity, a detained person may well not feel free to disclose the manner in which he/she was or is being treated. 34 The camera was hidden in the speaker grill of the lawyer’s room. The camera was connected to a power adapter and a cable, which reappeared in the Deputy Director’s office that was located several offices down the corridor from the consultation room. There, it was connected to a fully functional TV, audio and recording set. When asked by the delegation to explain this extraordinary state of affairs, the Deputy Director stated the following: “When lawyers are in private with detained persons they have to be in a monitored area.”