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AG: Dutch Supreme Court should refer question of legal assistance during the police interview for a preliminary ruling

30 Sep 2015
Thom Dieben
The Dutch Supreme Court should refer the controversial question of whether art. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) guarantees a right to legal assistance during the police interview to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling. That is the conclusion of Advocate-General Knigge in his advice to the Dutch Supreme Court published yesterday.

The Dutch Supreme Court held in April 2014 (ECLI:NL:HR:2014:770) that the Netherlands (and other EU Member States) have until 27 November 2016 to make arrangements for the presence of a lawyer during the police interview. According to AG Knigge, however, the CJEU should be asked whether a suspect can already before that date derive a right to legal assistance during the police interview from art. 6 ECHR. This is also in line with the request of the defence in this case. The conclusion of an Advocate-General is an independent non-binding advice to the Dutch Supreme Court. The Supreme Court expects to deliver a judgement in this case on 22 December 2015.

Thom Dieben, attorney-at-law at Jahae Raymakers, and Gwen Jansen argued the case on behalf of the accused.

The full opinion of AG Knigge [in Dutch] (ECLI:NL:PHR:2015:1996) is published on the website of the Dutch Supreme Court.

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