FPA called on the Investigative Committee to respond to illegal actions against lawyers

President of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of Russia (FPA) Svetlana Volodina called on the Investigative Committee to immediately respond to illegal actions against lawyers, as happens when “crimes occur against law enforcement officers.” Ms. Volodina commented to Kommersant on the FPA’s appeal, published the day before, to the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, with a request to stand up for the defense of the legal community. It notes with alarm the increase in attacks on lawyers and emphasizes that crimes against them are committed, among other things, by “investigators, police officers and escort service officers.” The Investigative Committee has not yet responded to the appeal from representatives of the lawyer’s self-government body.

After the publication of the FPA’s appeal to Alexander Bastrykin, Kommersant asked representatives of the chamber whether this step could be regarded as evidence of the passage of violence against lawyers beyond a certain critical point. FPA President Svetlana Volodina clarified that work on recording cases of crimes against lawyers has been going on for a long time: “Every case is important to us, so if we missed any incidents, we will definitely write about them additionally.” The situation, according to her, was discussed at a meeting of the Council of the FPA of Russia, where it was decided that the intervention of the Chairman of the Investigative Committee was required. The FPA expects an “adequate, quick and legal reaction” to illegal actions against lawyers: “When crimes occur against law enforcement officers, the reaction of the Investigative Committee is immediate. We believe that illegal actions against lawyers should be treated in the same way.”

Let us recall that on Sunday, FPA President Svetlana Volodina and Chairman of the FPA Council Commission for the Protection of the Rights of Lawyers Henry Reznik sent a letter to Alexander Bastrykin, in which they draw the attention of the head of the Investigative Committee to the growing number of attacks on lawyers in connection with their professional activities. The text provides 12 examples of violations of the rights of lawyers who remained unpunished: from insults and threats against them to the use of physical violence with a demand to abandon their professional duties. “Crimes against lawyers are committed not only by ordinary citizens, but also by those who, by virtue of their position, are called upon to fight crime: investigators, police officers, and escort service officers,” the message says.

The FPA reminds that, according to the law “On advocacy and the legal profession in the Russian Federation,” the lawyer himself, his family members and their property are under the protection of the state. However, representatives of the professional community state that in recent years there has been a steady upward trend in the incidence of criminal attacks on defense attorneys within the framework of their official activities. Ms. Volodina and Mr. Reznik draw attention to the fact that lawyers are often faced not only with the lack of an “appropriate legal response” by the investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee to the mentioned crimes, but also with the “direct concealment of such facts.” At the same time, attempts by lawyers and regional bar chambers to achieve justice are unsuccessful. “We ask you to take personal control of the implementation of the requirements of criminal procedural legislation by employees of the Investigative Committee in the regions specified in the appeal, take appropriate disciplinary measures against employees who committed red tape in relation to the above-mentioned appeals, and give instructions on the adoption of appropriate procedural decisions aimed at attracting criminal liability of the perpetrators,” the leadership of the FPA appeals to the head of the Investigative Committee.

“Kommersant” asked representatives of the Investigative Committee to comment on the lawyers’ message, but has not yet received a response to the request.

The trend towards an increase in the number of attacks on lawyers in the framework of their professional activities is also noted by the Institute of Law and Public Policy (included in the register of foreign agents), which, together with the Federal Law Enforcement Agency, monitors violations of the professional rights of defense lawyers. And the chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Professional Rights of Lawyers of the St. Petersburg Bar Association, Sergei Krause, confirmed to Kommersant that the legal community is extremely concerned about the lack of proper criminal legal protection for lawyers: “It seems that local law enforcement agencies prefer not to notice the problem, pretending that attacks on the professional and personal rights of lawyers, including honor and health, are not criminal in nature.” Against this background, Mr. Krause emphasized, there is a noticeable trend of “widespread prosecution of members of bar associations.”

“Persecution and infringement of the rights of lawyers in recent years have acquired the proportions of a disaster,” lawyer Konstantin Rivkin commented on his colleagues’ letter. “However, investigators, prosecutors and even judges themselves sometimes find themselves in the dock, and they have to be defended by those same lawyers.”

FPA is a body of lawyer self-government that unites all regional chambers of lawyers on the basis of compulsory membership. The FPA represents the interests of the legal community in state authorities and local governments, and also coordinates the activities of bar chambers at different levels. In total, more than 83 thousand lawyers work in Russia. Earlier, FPA adviser, member of its scientific advisory board Evgeniy Rubinshtein, commenting on FPA statistics on disciplinary practice for 2022, noted that “lawyers have always been persecuted, including during the Soviet period.” According to him, lawyers even now cannot “change the situation radically,” but they can “mitigate it using the powers of lawyer self-government bodies.” In 2022, he noted, of the 387 disciplinary proceedings initiated by the FPA, 142 were initiated by clients, 76 by judges and 29 by the Ministry of Justice. In 38% of cases, production was discontinued; for proceedings at the request of government agencies, this number was 75%. In 2019, the Investigative Committee reported that lawyers took third place in the number of subjects with a special legal status prosecuted (75 cases in 2018), behind municipal and regional deputies. Over the next two years, about a hundred more lawyers were brought to criminal liability.

Emilia Gabdullina, Ivan Tyazhlov