Amnesty International Report 1994 - Bulgaria

There were reports of torture and ill-treatment by the police. One man died in detention in suspicious circumstances. Two death sentences were passed but there were no executions. In August Bulgaria ratified the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. Bulgaria signed the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in September but had not ratified it by the end of the year. Suspected perpetrators of past human rights abuses continued to be brought to justice. In August five police officers from Razgrad were charged with illegal detention and use of force against ethnic Turks who had applied for passports to leave Bulgaria in August 1989. The trial of four former officials of Lovech labour camp charged with the killing of 14 prisoners (see Amnesty International Report 1993) was postponed in September following the death of one of the accused. The defendants remained at liberty. There were reports that among approximately 6,000 men who did not report for military service during the year, there were some who had conscientious objections. Although the right to perform an alternative service is recognized by Article 59 of the Constitution, no such alternative was available in Bulgaria. The prosecution of former Prime Minister Andrey Lukanov and 21 other former state and party officials, who were charged in August with misappropriation of state funds, appeared to be politically motivated. The trial had not begun by the end of the year. The defendants remained at liberty. There were reports of torture and ill-treatment by the police; the victims' ethnic origin appeared to be a factor in most cases. Members of the Roma community were particularly targeted, with many being assaulted in public. In March Khristo Nedialkov Khristov, suspected of attempting to steal copper wire, was beaten with truncheons and kicked by police in front of his home in Stara Zagora. Several of his ribs were broken and he required surgery to have a part of his lung and a kidney removed. In April, around 60 police officers attacked Roma in Novi Pazar, claiming to be in search of criminal suspects. They broke into homes and reportedly beat indiscriminately men, women and children. No official inquiry into this incident was known to have taken place. At the end of the year the government had still not disclosed the results of its investigation into a similar attack on Roma which took place in Pazardjik in June 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993). In April dozens of ethnic Macedonians, many of them members of Obedinena Makedonska Organizatsiya "Ilinden", the United Macedonian Organization "Ilinden", were beaten by the police. When they attempted peacefully to visit Rozhen Monastery, special police forces assaulted them with truncheons and rifle butts. Some who managed to escape to their cars had their windows broken, were dragged out and knocked to the ground. One man died in detention in suspicious circumstances. Zaharie Stefanov was arrested in Dubovo in June and reportedly beaten by police in front of the railway station and in the mayor's office. The beat-ings continued in his home and at another house where he was taken to identify objects he had allegedly stolen. Two days later Zaharie Stefanov died; the police reportedly said he had jumped from a third-storey room in Kazanluk police station, where he was being interrogated. One man was sentenced to death in June after being convicted of murder and another in August. In October a government official disclosed that 10 people had been sentenced to death since the introduction of a moratorium on executions in July 1990. There were no executions. Amnesty International repeatedly urged the authorities to investigate reports of torture and ill-treatment. In May the organization published a report, Bulgaria: Torture and ill-treatment of Roma. In July Amnesty International urged the government of Prime Minister Lyuben Berov to take steps towards abolition of the death penalty. Amnesty International urged President Zelyu Zhelev in October to suspend all prosecutions of conscientious objectors until a law on alternative service had been adopted. In June an investigation by the Director of National Police concluded that Khristo Nedialkov Khristov had not been ill-treated by police and that he had no injuries when released from the police station. Amnesty International questioned the composition of the investigation commission and the methods used.