Does limiting defence counsel’s access to interrogation records align with the Constitution?

The Constitutional Court convened to consider a citizen’s petition regarding the constitutionality of paragraph 17) of part nine of Article 64 and paragraph 5) of part two of Article 70 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The citizen was represented by the legal counsel during the constitutional proceedings.
The disputed provision excludes the interrogation records of a suspect from the list of procedural documents that the defence counsel can obtain copies of.

Instead, they are only permitted to review them and make extracts. The applicant argues that these regulations restrict citizens' rights to defence and undermine the effectiveness of defense counsel's work.

During the session, the judges heard arguments from the representative of the subject of application (lawyer), as well as representatives from the Prosecutor General's Office, the National Security Committee, the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Justice, the Financial Monitoring Agency, the Republican Bar Association, and an expert.

The final decision of the Constitutional Court will be published in accordance with Article 65 of the Constitutional Law on the official website of the Constitutional Court at https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/ksrk/activities/directions?lang=ru, and in the newspapers Egemen Kazakhstan and Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.