KYIV. Sept 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The existing format of the free legal aid system sets state control over lawyers and amendments to Ukrainian law should be made to protect the independence of lawyers and the rights of those they defend, the lawyers community of Ukraine has said.

"Today Ukrainian lawyers are suffering from political pressure of the power agencies via the charge-free legal aid system," Deputy Head of the Ukrainian National Bar Association Valentyn Hvozdiy said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

He said that the independence of lawyers is the foundation of their profession.

"We cannot depend on anyone, first of all, on the state," Hvozdiy said.

Hvozdiy said that the format of free legal aid set by the Justice Ministry which has resulted in the total control of the state: the approval of the power agency and its staff must be carried out to ensure aid under the system.

Asked why lawyers provide free legal aid, he said that many lawyers believe it is a way to advertize themselves and select their clients.

"A certain state group of lawyers has appeared which lawyers' standards do not reach," Head of the committee of the Ukrainian National Bar Association on legal ethics Andriy Tsyhankov said.

He said that the free legal aid system has created a supervisory system over clients who engage the services of lawyers free of charge.

A member of the committee of the Ukrainian National Bar Association on lawyers' rights protection Oksana Sokolovska said that as a rule under the free legal aid system lawyers who are friendly to investigators are provided and those that require protection often go without.

Head of the Bar Council Kiev region Petro Boiko said that lawyers work in the interests of clients who hire them and pay for their services, meaning that the state is the real client in the free legal aid system.

"We want to initiate amendments to the law on providing free legal aid to change the procedure and remove the state influence as much as possible. In particular, the lawyers' self administration could be authorized to fulfill this function as one of the options," Hvozdiy said.