Are Police Denying Detainees Their Right to Legal Counsel?

The right to an attorney is supposed to protect citizens from the moment they enter police custody. But Belizean defense attorneys say that protection is being weakened by unlawful barriers at some police stations. The Association of Defense Attorneys reports that lawyers are increasingly being prevented from speaking with detained clients by telephone, particularly at the San Ignacio Police Station. Attorney Orson Elrington says the restrictions leave detainees without timely legal guidance and prevent attorneys from ensuring that police respect their clients’ constitutional rights during questioning and detention.

 

Orson Elrington, Attorney-at-Law

“Some police stations have decided that the attorneys must be in person. Nowhere in the constitution says that attorney must be in person. It says that reasonable accommodations must be made for attorneys to be able to speak with their clients, so that would obviously include communication via the telephone. And so what has happened is that, for example, and one of the police stations that the association has flagged that has consistently breached the rights of citizens by not allowing them to speak to them through the phone. And I can tell you I personally have experienced that consistently where I tried to reach out to clients and speak to them is the San Ignacio Police Station, where they have arbitrarily, and we say unlawfully, put in procedures where if we want to speak to our client that we must go there in person. Again, the Association of Defense Attorneys completely rejects this and says that this is unconstitutional and has absolutely no merit at all to it. They have said, “Oh, well, we don’t know if it’s an attorney.” It’s technology. You’re calling me right now. If there was any issue as to the identity of the attorneys they could simply go about doing it via video call, which we would have absolutely no problem with obviously. That would be preferential. But we cannot assume that the police department has those facilities.”

 

The Association says lawyers have a duty to advise detainees of their rights and protect their interests while in custody and is the calling on the Commissioner of Police, the Minister of Home Affairs, and the Prime Minister to intervene and ensure police officers comply with the Constitution and respect citizens’ rights.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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