Prosecutor’s Office of Kabardino-Balkaria finds violation during inspection of advocate in SIZO

A female employee of the Nalchik SIZO (pre-trial prison) violated privacy during an inspection of an advocate, the Prosecutor’s Office of Kabardino-Balkaria reported. Prosecutors had grounds to satisfy the complaint in full, but they did not take into account all the circumstances, emphasized Azamat Zhigatov, a member of the Commission for the Protection of the Advocates’ Rights of the Council of the Bar Chamber of Kabardino-Balkaria.

On February 3, while entering the Nalchik SIZO to visit her client, advocate Yelena Bairamkulova was subjected to an inspection by a female employee of the SIZO. The advocate pointed out that the inspection was carried out with prejudice. The Commission for the Protection of the Advocates’ Rights of the Council of the Bar Chamber of Kabardino-Balkaria emphasizes that any inspection of advocates in a SIZO without good reason is unacceptable and that the actions of the female employee of the Nalchik SIZO were a violation of the rights and an obstacle to professional activity of the advocate.

“The SIZO employee offered me to show the contents of my pockets. I took out everything I had in my pockets. After that, she asked me to take off my outer clothes, then ran a metal detector over me several times, and even touched me with her hands. Then she lifted my dress and checked my back. But she was still not satisfied with her inspection and suggested that I went with her to a room where there were no cameras and show her my underwear,” Yelena Bairamkulova said.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Kabardino-Balkaria had grounds for prosecutorial response to the illegal search of the advocate and satisfaction of her complaint in full, notes Azamat Zhigatov, a member of the Commission for the Protection of the Advocates’ Rights of the Council of the Bar Chamber of Kabardino-Balkaria.

The case of Yelena Bairamkulova will be considered by the Council of the Bar Chamber of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), the “Advocate Newspaper” reports.