What are your rights as a Detainee in Spain?

As a detainee in Spain you have to be informed of your rights by the Police in accordance with article 17 of the Constitution and article 520 of the Spanish Criminal Procedural Law (LECrim), which are the following:

• You have the right not to testify against yourself, not to confess guilty, to remain silent, not to testify, not to answer one or more of the questions put to you or to say that you will only testify before the judge.

• You have the right to appoint an attorney to assist you. If, for reasons of geographical distance, the immediate assistance of the lawyer is not possible, you have the right to communicate with them by telephone or by videoconference, except when this communication is impossible. If you do not appoint an attorney, one will be appointed ex officio.

• You have the right to speak privately with the lawyer, even before making a statement to the police, and for the lawyer to intervene in the declaration proceedings, the acknowledgment of which you are the subject of, and the reconstruction of the events in which you participate.

• You have the right to access elements of the proceedings that are essential to challenge the legality of your detention.

• You have the right to be notified by whomever you say you are detained and where you are detained.

• You have the right to call the person you want in the presence of an agent.

• If you are a foreigner, you have the right to have the police notify your consulate of your country of your detention and place of custody. In addition, you have the right to be visited by the consular authorities of your country and to communicate and correspond with them.

• You have the right to the free assistance of an interpreter in the event that you do not understand or speak Spanish or the other co-official language in the Autonomous Community where you are at, or in the event that you are a deaf person, with a hearing disability, with language difficulties or with other disability that affects the faculties of oral comprehension or expression.

• You have the right to be recognized by the forensic doctor or his legal substitute or, failing that, by any other doctor dependent on the public administration.

• You have the right to request free legal assistance if you prove insufficient economic resources to litigate in the terms provided for in Law 1/1996 on free legal assistance. This application must be submitted to the corresponding bar association.

• You have the right to apply for habeas corpus if you believe your detention is unlawful.