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(1) Accused persons may retain defence counsel for the duration of the criminalproceedings.(2) A defence counsel may be retained for the accused person by his legalrepresentative, spouse, lineal relation by blood, adopter, adoptee, sibling and fosterparent,as well as a common-law spouse or other person with whom accused lives in anextramarital or other lasting association.(3) Only lawyers may be retained as defence counsel, and may be replaced by a traineelawyer where proceedings concern a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment of upto five years. Defence counsel before the Supreme Court of Cassation may only belawyers.(4) Defence counsel are required to submit powers of attorney to the authority beforewhich the proceedings are being conducted. Accused persons may also issue defencecounsel verbal powers of attorney, that shall be officially recorded at the authority wherethe proceedings are being conducted.Article 69(1) Several accused persons may have a joint defence counsel only where that wouldnot be contrary to the interests of their defence.(2) A single accused person may retain a maximum of five defence counsel in oneproceedings, and it shall be deemed that defence exists where only one defencecounsel is present at any one time during the proceedings.Article 70(1) Co-accuse, aggrieved parties, spouses of aggrieved parties or the prosecutor, oftheir lineal relations by blood to any degree, in the collateral line to the fourth degree, orup to the second degree by marriage, may not be defence counsel.(2) Persons summoned to the trial as witnesses may also not act as defence counsel,except if under this Code they are relieved of the duty to give evidence and made givenformal statements that they will not give evidence.(3) Persons who had in the same case served as judges or public prosecutors, orundertaken actions in pre-trial proceedings, may also not be defence counsel.Article 71(1) Where an accused person is mute, deaf or unable to conduct his own defencesuccessfully, or where the proceedings concern a criminal offence punishable by a termof imprisonment of over ten years, the accused person must have a defence counselduring the very first interrogation.(2) Accused persons remanded in custody must have defence counsel while indetention.