Month: June 2014

The participants discussed the impact of fundamental rights on criminal law in the European Union, the specificity of the principles governing criminal procedure and the organization of the criminal justice system, the legislative and judicial conditions for the admissibility of evidence, policies and practice in EU Member States regarding custodial sanctions, alternative sanctions, probation and disqualification and legal and enforcement mechanisms in relation to incarceration.

The seminar also included prof. Kai Ambos, prof. Jorg-Martin Jehle, Terence Palfrey, Pascal Gastineau, Ignacio de Lucas and Petra Jeney as foreign experts.

Adv. Mikołaj Pietrzak, who appeared on behalf of The Polish Bar Council, indicated in his statement that in some cases prosecutors regard the legal professional privilege as concerning only advocates but not suspects. As a result, prosecutors sometimes try to persuade suspects to reveal information about their confidential conversations with lawyers. Such practices are unacceptable, underlined Mikołaj Pietrzak. In his opinion, the legal professional privilege guaranteed by the Act on the Advocacy and the Act on Legal Advisors concerns a lawyer’s clients as well.

The participants of the panel discussion also included: Dariusz Sałajewski, Chairman of National Board of Legal Counsels; advocate Tomasz Wardyński; Wojciech Kowalewski, Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce in Poland; Agata Zawłocka-Turno, vice-director of Department of Competition Protection in the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection; and prof. Tadeusz Skoczny, Chairman of Advisory Board to the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The article can be read here

[Krzysztof Sobczak, Tajemnica adwokacka tylko dla adwokata?, www.kancelaria.lex.pl, 12.06.2014]

The second day of the conference started with a panel discussion on “Does nothing justify use of tortures?”, in which adv. Mikołaj Pietrzak was one of the speakers. Mikołaj Pietrzak referred to the speech that the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama gave during his last visit in Poland, in which he mentioned and emphasized human rights protection. In response, adv. Mikołaj Pietrzak recalled the issue of torture used in the secret CIA prisons.

During the later debate, the participants discussed methods and roles of men in using torture and the reasons that so little attention is paid to this issue in democratic countries.

The participants of this panel discussion also included: Gerald Staberock, the Chairman of the World Organization Against Torture; Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist of the daily newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza”, a dissident and political prisoner of Łukaszenko’s regime; and Rasul Jafarov, a human rights activist from the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The article can be read here

[Joanna Brzezińska, Małgorzata Zagawa, Panel dyskusyjny: „Nic nie usprawiedliwia stosowania tortur?”, www.igrzyskawolnosci.pl, 05.06.2014]