Brno, Feb 23 (CTK) – The Czech Association of Defence Lawyers filed a criminal complaint against the police for wiretapping confidential conversations between businessman Sharam Abdullah Zadeh, suspected of huge tax fraud, and his lawyers, Czech Radio (CRo) reported yesterday.
The Czech Bar Chamber spokeswoman Iva Chaloupkova said it may be an unprecedented violation of fundamental human rights in the country if the information from the private talks appeared in the file. The chamber dealt with the issue in mid-February and expressed very high concern about the steps taken by the police and the judiciary, she added.
State attorney Michal Galat who supervises the case said the affair was a storm in a teacup. He told CTK that the positions of the lawyers’ association and bar chamber and the strong statements of their representatives are unfortunate as they do not participate in the proceedings.
Zadeh said the police tapped his conversations with lawyers and included their recordings into his criminal file.
Zadeh’s lawyer Alena Kojzarova told CRo that the detectives had detailed information about how Zadeh wanted to defend himself. “If the police and state attorney know the tactic of the defence in advance and what the defence talks about, then the defence is actually pointless,” she said.
The Association of Defence Lawyers said the police abused their power and their wiretapping violated the secrecy of information. “But first of all, it is an unscrupulous attack on the principles of the rule of law,” Vaclav Vlk, a senior member of the association, said.
Chaloupkova said wiretapping of communication between a suspect and his lawyer is against law. Such recordings must be destroyed and the information gained cannot be used in any way, she said.
Galat said Zadeh started to be wiretapped as a suspect, not as somebody who has been accused or charged.
Once the criminal proceedings against Zadeh were launched, measures were taken to destroy the wiretappings of conversations between the lawyers and the accused, he said.
Galat pointed out that wiretappings of accused people and their lawyers were not banned, but these wiretapping had to be destroyed and could not be used as a piece of evidence.
Supreme State Attorney’s Office spokesman Petr Maly confirmed that the office received the complaint. This has been the first complaint that the association has ever filed.
Zadeh was arrested three years ago. Along with accomplices, he is suspected of tax evasion related to the imports of hundreds of millions of litres of fuel from Slovenia and Germany to the Czech Republic in 2012-2013. The police consider him the chief organiser of a 2.5 billion-crown fraud, in which 65 companies used false tax returns and stooges. Zadeh pleads innocent.
Zadeh was released from custody on a record-high bail of 150 million crowns one year ago, but he was placed into custody last December again. The police accused him of being involved in undue influencing of a witness. Kojzarova said previously the authorities tried to exert pressure on her client.
Zadeh’s defence repeatedly complained about various steps taken by Czech authorities in the case.
($1=25.700 crowns)
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