You always have the right to self-paid legal aid. Sometimes legal aid will be provided and paid for by the State. You also have the right to meetings and confidential communication with your attorney at law.
Right to legal aid
When you are detained on remand, you are an accused person in the criminal proceedings. Your court trial may even have begun. The fact that you are detained does not mean that you have no right to prepare your defense case.
It is important to have a lawyer who can help you to challenge your detention and to prepare your criminal case. Therefore, you have the right to have a lawyer. In Slovakia, only attorneys at law and their apprentices can defend you in criminal proceedings. Read more about defence in criminal proceedings.
You also have the right to defend yourself. This means that you have the right to refuse legal aid and use all the rights of defence on your own. Read more about the right to defend yourself.
Free legal aid
You always have a right to invite a self-paid attorney at law of your own choose.
If you are in detention on remand you must be an accused of crime. In that position, there can be situations where an attorney at law will be provided and paid for by the state. Those situations are where:
- You have not invited an attorney at law but the participation of the attorney in the criminal proceedings is compulsory
- You have invited an attorney at law but for some reason he or she cannot participate in a procedural activity where the presence of an attorney is compulsory
- You have not invited an attorney because you cannot afford to pay for one
Communication with an attorney at law
You have the right to meet with your attorney at law freely during your detention, but you have to comply with the internal order of the prison for detention on remand. The administration of that prison must ensure that you can meet with your attorney at law confidentially. The guards or other authorities must not listen to your conversation.
You also have the right to call, write to and receive letters from your attorney at law. You have the right to confidentiality. That means that the staff of the place of detention must not listen to your calls or read your letters addressed to your lawyer.
If you do not speak Slovak, there may be some situations where you have the right to a State provided translator during your meetings with the attorney at law.
What human rights violation may there be?
If you were not given a chance to invite an attorney at law and you could not, therefore, effectively challenge your detention, this may result in a violation of the right to liberty and security of a person.
If you were not given a chance to invite an attorney at law and you could not, therefore, properly prepare your defence, there were non-permitted interferences in your communication with your attorney or you were not allowed to defend yourself where permitted, this may result in a violation of the right to fair trial.