Across the European Union, basic rights are violated every day in police stations, court rooms and prisons. Legal advice is not always provided; standards of interpreting are often poor; and people are imprisoned unnecessarily before trial. This destroys the lives of innocent people, causes miscarriages of justice and undermines public faith in criminal justice.

Fair Trials International has, for many years, called for EU action to tackle these human rights abuses and real progress is finally being made. In the last two years, new EU laws have been passed guaranteeing the right to interpretation and translation and information for suspects. But these are only the start. Much more work is needed to raise standards of justice in Europe. Until this is completed, injustice will remain a daily reality.

Working for a world where every person’s right to a fair trial is respected, whatever their nationality, wherever they are accused

Defence rights

Fair Trials International

Imagine being arrested in a country where your basic rights are not respected. What would you do if you were mistreated, or refused information about your case or your rights? What if you could not understand the police and there was no interpreter, or you could not afford a lawyer and there was no legal aid? This is the ordeal suffered by many of the hundreds of people who contact Fair Trials International for help every year. It is a daily reality, even within the European Union.

EU defence rights - bringing rights home

A fair trial is the best way to separate the guilty from the innocent. Clear, enforceable defence rights help to minimise the risk of innocent people being wrongly convicted. They ensure the powers of states to investigate, arrest and detain people are not abused.

The rights to liberty and a fair trial are defining features of a just society but, sadly, sixty years after the European Convention on Human Rights was agreed, EU countries are responsible for a growing number of violations. Liberty and fair trial rights are the ones most commonly breached.

Mohammed (not his real name), an Iraqi refugee, was arrested in Spain for alleged terrorist activities. After his arrest, he was taken to a “medical facility”, stripped and humiliated. He was interrogated without a lawyer and threatened with a gun. Mohammed was detained in appalling conditions and denied access to a lawyer or consular assistance. At his trial, five years later, he was acquitted of all charges. For much of this time he was detained incommunicado and without any information on the case against him.

250%

2004: EU countries moved to a fast-track extradition system – the European Arrest Warrant on the naive assumption that fair trials are guaranteed across Europe.

EU justice timeline

Mohammed Abadi

www.fairtrials.net

Over 13% of our clients reported being denied access to a lawyer during their police interview in the EU.

- the increase in violations of the right to liberty in criminal cases by EU countries since 2007

www.fairtrials.net

2009: The EU at last agreed to take action on defence rights and adopted the Procedural Rights Roadmap that promised laws to protect the basic rights of anyone facing charges in EU.

2012: Some progress has been made but much more remains to be done to achieve justice in Europe.

2004 – 2008: Extradition numbers surged. Overcrowding in many prisons across the EU worsened. EU countries failed to agree a package of basic laws to protect defence rights.

Natalia Gorczowska

Natalia Gorczowska was threatened with separation from her one year old baby, just one of many people facing disproportionate extradition and imprisonment for minor offences committed years earlier.

In 2009, the EU finally agreed the “Procedural Rights Roadmap”, which promised a series of new laws, each protecting a key element of the right to a fair trial. Since then, there has been some progress, but there is still a long way to go.

Cyprus

Prison Overcrowding: the EU’s worst offenders 2011/2012

Fair Trials International wants to see respect for fundamental rights at the heart of EU justice policy. EU laws should make clearly defined fair trial standards directly enforceable in courts across Europe. People should not have to go to the human rights court in Strasbourg to uphold their rights. They should not lose their rights when they move from one EU country to another.

Fair Trials International

www.fairtrials.net

United Kingdom

The UK’s extradition system has been heavily criticised.

Relatively few violations in the European Court of Human Rights, but one third of these relate to right to a fair trial.

Pre-trial detention periods are short (up to 6 months) but conditions have been criticised.

Bulgaria

In the last five years Bulgaria has been held in violation of the right to liberty or a fair trial in over 80 cases, mostly because of the excessive length of criminal proceedings.

The Council of Europe and the US State Department have reported judicial corruption and lack of independence.

Netherlands Concerns about restrictions on accessing a lawyer in police custody.

Defence lawyer quote: “You cannot discuss the case with the suspect in private. The police remain in the room so that you cannot speak freely.”

The Dutch NGO, EuroMoS, has surveyed hundreds of defence practitioners’ from across Europe on how well defence rights are being respected in practice.

With the support of the law firm, Clifford Chance, we have reviewed European Court of Human Rights findings against every EU country on fair trial rights in criminal cases and pre-trial detention between April 2007 and June 2012.

Malta James Milton (not his real name) was just 16 when he was arrested in Malta. James was questioned for several hours overnight without a lawyer present. His mother was refused entry to the interview room despite her frequent requests to see her son. During his interrogation, James was not even given a glass of water. His passport was taken from him and for more than a year he was unable to visit family and friends in the UK. He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing at trial.

Europe – a long way from being an area of justice, freedom and security

Fair Trials International

This is just a snapshot. A full, interactive map is available at www.fairtrials.net/justice-in-Europe, containing information on defence rights in all of the EU’s 27 member countries.

www.fairtrials.net

Italy

Major delays in bringing defendants to trial with lengthy periods of pre-trial detention common.

“The Government should, as a matter of priority, put in place legislative and other measures to decrease the duration of criminal trials with a view to ensuring better protection of the right to be tried without delay” – UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

Greece

More European Court of Human Rights violations of fair trial rights than any other EU country, nearly all relating to trial delays.

Excessive pre-trial detention, often in horrendous conditions.

Sweden

Sweden has a good record of upholding the rights to liberty and a fair trial in criminal proceedings.

Concerns have been raised about the restrictive conditions in pre-trial detention. Defence lawyer comment: “Sweden has no legal limit for pre-trial detention. This is a heavy burden, especially if the subject is held in isolation, which is very common.”

Andrew Symeou was just 20 when he was shipped off to a year-long nightmare, in one of Europe’s worst jails

Fair Trials International

www.fairtrials.net

Defence rights

We won’t have justice in Europe until everyone is guaranteed:

Action so far Still to come?

October 2010: new EU law adopted.

April 2012: new EU law adopted.

June 2011: draft law released but UK, Ireland, France, Netherlands and Belgium have criticised it as going too far.

June 2011: draft law released.

Lawyers across the EU say legal aid systems are weak and standards low.

Fair Trials International will be working with experts towards an effective new law.

July 2013: deadline for EU countries to put into law.

June 2014: deadline for EU countries to put into law.

In negotiation.European Parliament and Commission demand strong protections.

In negotiation.

Draft law expected 2013.

– A joint letter from Fair Trials International and other leading NGOs on pre-trial detention.

Draft law expected 2013.

Interpretation and translation for those who need it.

Clear, prompt information on rights, charges and the case against you.

Legal advice from the point of arrest or questioning by police, right through to trial and any appeal.

Right to communicate on arrest and access to consular officials.

Legal aid if people cannot afford to pay a lawyer.

Vulnerable suspects, like children.

The pre-trial detention regime in EU member states needs urgent reform, to ensure an end to the unnecessary and often arbitrary recourse to pre-trial detention and the severe rights violations that it causes

A response from the Commission is awaited.

An end to excessive, unjustified pre-trial detention. we need:

EU laws regulating the use of pre-trial detention;

Better use of alternatives to detention; and

Deferred extradition until the case is ready for trial.

June 2011: Commission consultation launched recognising the need for action. December 2011: Fair Trials International leads calls for effective EU action. Now backed by the European parliament, civil society and a number of member states.

With generous support from:

Fair Trials International

www.fairtrials.net

Defence rights organisations like Fair Trials International have pinpointed failings in the arrest warrant. Problems with it being used for minor offences, the lack of legal representation, long pre-trial detention periods, and bad detention conditions are all cited.

– Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP

An unjust extradition system – undermining effective police cooperation Without effective guarantees of justice in Europe, efforts by states to cooperate to fight crime will be undermined.

Fair Trials International’s proposals in relation to pre-trial detention are good and will work to reduce discrimination against non-nationals.

– Judith Sargentini MEP

Thousands of people are removed from their homes and families every year, extradited under the European Arrest Warrant system, which is not working as it should. To create a fairer system we need:

A proportionality test to stop extradition for minor offences;

Warrants to be withdrawn where extradition is properly refused;

Deferred extradition until case is ready for trial; and Courts to refuse extradition if human rights would be

breached as a result. In June 2011, following a major report from Fair Trials International featuring our clients’ cases, MEPs debated the case for reform, supporting action for a fairer system.

Reform of this system is needed if we are to make justice in Europe a reality.

European Arrest Warrant numbers across the EU

Chart only includes data for states which responded to the European Council questionnaire on the EAW. In each year 3 Member States on average did not respond.

This publication has been produced with the financial support of the Criminal Justice Programme of the

European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Fair Trials International and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the

European Commission.

Fair Trials International

Support UsAt Fair Trials International, we rely on the generosity of our supporters to continue our work. With your support we will continue to fight individual cases of injustice and to campaign for fair trials across the globe. To find out more and how to get involved, visit www.fairtrials.net

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Our future plans

Fair Trials International will:

Continue to campaign for EU action on procedural rights, including a strong directive on the right to legal advice and special protections for vulnerable suspects;

Work with lawyers across Europe so that EU defence rights laws are being properly used and applied;

Challenge excessive and unjustified pre-trial detention, promoting alternatives like the new European Supervision Order allowing people arrested in another EU country to return home until trial;

Maintain pressure for reform of the European Arrest Warrant; and

Promote new ways to raise fair trials standards, such as introducing tape-recording at police stations and tackling unnecessary trial delays.

Our achievements

Exposing the injustice caused by excessive and unjustified pre-trial detention and building consensus for reform.

Winning support for improvement of the European Arrest Warrant.

Maintaining pressure for the EU’s first two defence rights laws on interpretation and translation, and on information.

“The work of Fair Trials International has been very instructive in showing that mutual recognition and mutual trust need to work together.”

– Viviane Reding, Vice President of the European Commission, speaking at the European Parliament, May 2011