You should be able to meet with your lawyer without restrictions and without supervision or monitoring.
According to Bulgarian law, meetings with your defence lawyer should be confidential – they must not be listened to by the prison administration, but could be visually monitored.
Monitoring
Human rights allow for the monitoring of lawyer’s visits only in exceptional circumstances and only to the degree necessary to verify whether there are any real threats to security. They may only be monitored if the prison staff have a real and very well-grounded reason to believe that illegal activities, such as the delivery of prohibited objects, are taking place during the meeting. An individual written decision must be issued in such a case.
Reasoned monitoring
Bulgarian law allows for visual monitoring of your meetings with a lawyer. Such indiscriminate monitoring, however, is not allowed by human rights. In order to justify monitoring, as is the case with any other lawyer, the prison administration must have real and well-grounded reason to believe that some illegal activities might take place during the meeting. An individual decision must be issued in such a case. If your meeting is monitored without adequate reason, your rights may have been violated.
What human rights violation may there be?
Unjustified restrictions, monitoring or listening to your meetings with your lawyer may violate your right to respect for your private life and correspondence.
example If a letter from your lawyer consulting you on a family-related dispute contains private information, the reading of such letter may violate your right to a private life.
As restricting, monitoring or listening to the meetings with your lawyer may also affect your criminal case, your right to a fair trial may also be violated. Therefore, if your conversations or meetings with your lawyer have been restricted, monitored or listened to, you should include this fact in your submissions to the court.
If you believe that your rights have been violated, you should first complain to the prison administration to prevent future violations. Read more about how to complain.