Verkhovna Rada recommended to legalise the right of prisoners to confidential correspondence with their lawyer.

The Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement recommends that the Verkhovna Rada adopt as a basis the draft law on amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding ensuring the right of persons held in custody and convicted persons to unhindered correspondence with a lawyer.
The draft law (reg. No. 2460), submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers, envisages supplementing the Law ‘On Pre-trial Detention’ and the Criminal-Executive Code of Ukraine with provisions that prohibit administrative bodies of penal and pre-trial detention facilities from reviewing correspondence sent by convicts and persons held in custody to their lawyer, or received from them.
The need for the adoption of the draft law is linked to the fact, Committee members noted, that the provisions of current legislation, specifically the Law ‘On Pre-trial Detention’ and the Criminal-Executive Code of Ukraine, do not correspond to Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 17 July 1997.
In accordance with this article of the Convention, the contracting parties are obliged to ensure, among other things, the right of a person to unhindered and confidential correspondence with a lawyer.
Committee members drew attention to the fact that current legislation provides for categories of correspondence of convicts and persons held in custody that are not subject to review by the administration of penal institutions. In particular, these are proposals, statements, and complaints addressed to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, as well as other relevant bodies of international organisations of which Ukraine is a member or participant, authorised persons of such international organisations, and the prosecutor.
However, they noted that there is no established prohibition on reviewing correspondence that convicts and persons held in custody receive from these bodies, nor correspondence between a convict or a person held in custody and their lawyer.
People’s Deputies supported the draft law, the adoption of which, in their opinion, “will eliminate problems in the practical application of the provisions of current legislation and will allow for the avoidance of findings by the European Court of Human Rights of violations by Ukraine of Article 8 of the Convention and state budget expenditures for the payment of fair compensation amounts awarded by the European Court.”