Chapter 6 • The Right to a Fair Trial: Part I – From Investigation to Trial the Convention. “If a lawyer were unable to confer with his client and receive confidential instructions from him without such surveillance, his assistance would lose much of its usefulness, whereas the Convention is intended to guarantee rights that are practical and effective.”76 The case of S. v. Switzerland In the case of S. v. Switzerland, the applicant complained of a violation of article 6(3)(c) in that the Swiss authorities had exercised surveillance of his meetings with his lawyer and only authorized the lawyer to consult a fraction of the case-file. It also appears from the facts that some letters from the applicant to his lawyer had been intercepted and that on one occasion the policemen supervising the meeting had even taken notes. The Government argued before the Court that the surveillance was justified for reasons of “collusion” since there was a danger that the two lawyers for the co-accused would co-ordinate their defence strategy. The Court concluded, however, that the applicant’s right under article 6(3)(c) to communicate with his lawyer was violated, because, “notwithstanding the seriousness of the charges against the applicant”, the possibility of collusion could not “justify the restriction in issue and no other reason [had] been adduced cogent enough to do so”. In the view of the Court there was “nothing extraordinary in a number of defence counsel collaborating with a view to co-ordinating their defence strategy”, and neither “the professional ethics” of the Court-appointed defence counsel “nor the lawfulness of his conduct were at any time called into question in this case”. Furthermore, “the restriction in issue lasted over seven months”.77 As can be seen, the case-law of the international monitoring organs proves that the rules on fair trial contained in the international human rights treaties, although principally appearing to aim at ensuring fair court proceedings as such, may also be applicable to the pre-trial stages of criminal investigation, at least to the extent necessary to ensure a subsequent fair hearing before an independent and impartial court of law. This follows inter alia from the case-law of the Human Rights Committee with regard to the right of access to a lawyer under article 14, which will be dealt with in further depth in Chapter 7. Further, so far as article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights is concerned, the European Court has held that in particular article 6(3) “may be relevant before a case is sent for trial if and so far as the fairness of the trial is likely to be seriously prejudiced by an initial failure to comply with its provisions”.78 With regard to article 6(3)(c), which concerns the right to defend oneself in person or through legal assistance of one’s own choosing, the manner of its application “during the preliminary investigation depends on the special features of the proceedings 76 Ibid., para. 48 at p. 16. 77 Ibid., para. 49. 78 Eur. Court HR, Case of John Murray v. the United Kingdom, judgment of 8 February 1996, Reports 1996-I, p. 54, para. 62. 238 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers