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Recommended Disciplinary Action on Violation of the Right to Prompt Counsel [2004] KRNHRC 23 (1 January 2004)

The complainant filed a complaint with the Commission stating that a policeman came
into the interview room of the complainant and listened to and recorded the interview with
the lawyer and thus violated the right of the suspect to prompt assistance of counsel as
guaranteed under the Constitution.

After examining the case, the Commission found that the policeman in charge of the
interview room entered the room with the paper on the arrested suspect and listened to and
recorded the conversation between the complainant and the lawyer. Even though the lawyer
demanded that the policeman get out of the room, the policeman asked the lawyer for the
lawyer's address and recorded it. The Commission decided that such act violated the right
of the lawyer to render prompt assistance of counsel guaranteed by paragraph 4, Article 12
of the Constitution, and recommended to the police agency of the respondents that the
respondents who interrupted the interview be subjected to disciplinary actions or warned.