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Amnesty International Report 2000 - Bulgaria

Head of state: Petar Stoyanov
Head of government: Ivan Kostov
Capital: Sofia
Population: 8.3 million
Official language: Bulgarian
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
1999 treaty ratifications/signatures: Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty; Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the abolition of the death penalty; Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

There continued to be widespread reports of ill-treatment and torture by law enforcement officials. Roma were frequently the target of such reported abuses, and often felt unable to pursue complaints, fearing retribution from law enforcement officials. Law enforcement officials continued to use firearms in circumstances prohibited by international standards, resulting in deaths and injuries.

Use of firearms by police

The Bulgarian Law on National Police, adopted in 1997, allows law enforcement officials to use firearms in circumstances far wider than those allowed by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which allow the use of firearms only in self-defence or the defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury. The authorities made no move to reform the law during 1999 and new reports were received of fatal shootings by law enforcement officials in circumstances prohibited by international standards.

• In July Oleg Petrov Georgiev was shot dead by border police who fired shots into the lorry in which he was travelling near the border with Serbia. His father, Petar Lapatadov Georgiev, who was driving the lorry, was shot in the knee.

The actions of law enforcement officials who shot criminal suspects who were trying to escape were considered lawful if the officials were able to claim that they fired warning shots first, and that they had not intended to kill. In April the authorities replied to AI about fatal shootings by law enforcement officials in previous years and revealed a worrying lack of understanding of the international standards governing the use of firearms by law enforcement officials.

• Two Romani soldiers who had left their unit without permission, Kancho Angelov and Kiril Petkov, were shot dead by military police in their home village of Lesura in July 1996. The Ministry of Justice cited their previous convictions for petty crimes in order to claim that the two soldiers were "presenting serious danger" and stated that the use of firearms against them therefore complied with international standards, although the victims were unarmed and running away. The military police major who led the operation was reported to have shot about 20 bullets in automatic fire from a range of seven or eight metres. His actions were considered lawful by the authorities since "lethal use was not intentional". The investigation did not take account of the testimony of Romani witnesses to the shooting, who reported that the military police major had shouted racist abuse and threatened to kill them all shortly before he opened fire.

Ill-treatment and torture by police

There were reports of ill-treatment and torture by police, and of a death in police custody. There were also reports that people who complained about torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials were subjected to intimidation or further ill-treatment. Roma were reported to be particularly vulnerable to such abuses.

Death in police custody

• In September private security guards detained Kostadin Sherbetov at a Sofia school and took him to a police station, where he died the same day. Forensic examination recorded that he sustained several broken ribs, bruising all over his body, and that there were footprints on his clothes.
• Two police officers were tried and received prison sentences for beating Mincho Sartmachev to death in Dobrich police station in 1997, yet the authorities provided no information of any investigation into the alleged torture of his companion Stanimir Georgiev.

Police ill-treatment and intimidation

In July and August a special police detachment located at the training base of the Ministry of the Interior's Bureau for Operative Investigations, by the Iskar reservoir, reportedly ill-treated and threatened to shoot people.

• A detachment of about 15 armed special police beat with truncheons and threatened to shoot 46-year-old businessman Svetlyu Shishkov, his 20-year-old son Slaveiko Shishkov, and Slaveiko Shishkov's friends, Georgi Randev, Ivan Ivanov and Madlena Marinova, on a beach by the reservoir. The police officers then shot at the Shishkovs' jet-ski, hitting it with 19 bullets and destroying it. The police action followed warnings the Shishkovs were given earlier in the day against observing from their jet-ski a private resort on the opposite shore where the Minister of the Interior was staying. The authorities failed to investigate the reported ill-treatment vigorously, but made public the addresses of the alleged victims, and past criminal offences committed by some of them and their relatives and friends. After filing a complaint, Svetlyu Shishkov was reportedly approached by a man claiming to represent his assailants, who allegedly threatened further violence against Svetlyu Shishkov and his sons if he did not drop his complaint and stop talking to the media. Slaveiko Shishkov and his friends were reportedly followed by a group of people in several cars.

Roma

There were numerous reports of law enforcement officials ill-treating Roma in a manner which suggested that many of them viewed such violent treatment of Roma as routine and necessary.

• In January a police officer at Pleven cooperative market reportedly verbally abused Stefka Ilieva Madjarova as she arrived to sell her goods at her stall, then kicked and dragged her into the police room at the market. Inside, he reportedly beat her with a truncheon.
• In October, four police officers reportedly beat Liliyan Yordanov Zanev and four other Romani men with truncheons. The Romani men had been waiting in a car on the outskirts of Pleven. The police officers accused them of intending to burgle nearby villas. After reportedly beating the Romani men for 30 minutes, the police officers departed in their cars.

There were reports of Roma being tortured in police custody to make them sign confessions.

• In November Dinio Stoyanov was arrested and detained in Stara Zagora Regional Police Department on suspicion of theft. Police officers reportedly forced him to kneel and crawl, trampled on his hands, handcuffed him to metal bars for several hours, beat him into unconsciousness with a wooden bat, beat him with a metal pipe and threatened to kill him with a knife, and later with a gun.

In some cases, police officers reportedly used violence against individual Roma in order to intimidate their communities.

• In February a police officer reportedly allowed his dog to savage Fanka Khristova on a hill outside Karnobat where she and two other Romani women had been collecting wood. When Fanka Khristova's companions pleaded with the officer to call off his dog, he refused and reportedly said that if at least one of the local Roma did not suffer, they would never stop taking wood from the hill.

There were reports of civilian guards hired by local mayors and field guards detaining and ill-treating Roma, and of police officers joining in.

• Three reports of ill-treatment of Roma in Beglej village in Lovesh region, perpetrated by the mayor's guards and a named police officer, had been referred to the authorities by AI by the end of 1999. For example, in March, three mayor's guards forced their way into the house of 51-year-old Ivan Georgiev Ivanov and reportedly beat him and his wife, Antoineta Ivanova. They handcuffed Ivan Georgiev Ivanov and marched him towards the village centre, while continuing to beat him with their fists and a hose. The local police officer reportedly joined in the ill-treatment, kicking and thumping Ivan Georgiev Ivanov on his head, face and body. The police officer then freed Ivan Georgiev Ivanov and let him go home. The authorities maintained that, "[t]here is no evidence whatsoever... to conclude that physical maltreatment or any other unlawful acts against Roma citizens have occurred in the village."

The authorities' failure to protect Roma who complained about ill-treatment reportedly caused the victims of a police raid on Mechka village in July 1998, in which at least 15 people were reportedly injured, not to pursue their complaint to the appeal stage. There was a report that the father of a Romani teenager, who was reportedly beaten by police in Varna in May 1998, was ill-treated and interrogated by police about the action taken by AI on the case. Some victims of alleged ill-treatment were charged with offences by the police. Tanya Borissova, who was allegedly beaten by three police officers controlling a crowd of Roma in front of a Pazardjik labour office, was convicted of minor hooliganism on the evidence of two of the officers and a labour office employee.

Intergovernmental organizations

The UN Committee against Torture met in April and May to consider Bulgaria's second periodic report. The Committee found that Bulgarian law lacked a definition of torture and failed to ensure that all acts of torture are offences under criminal law. The Committee expressed concern about continuing reports of ill-treatment by public officials, particularly the police, especially of members of ethnic minorities. The Committee also expressed concern about deficiencies in the system of investigation of alleged cases of torture and the failure to bring those allegations before a judge or other appropriate judicial authority.

Conscientious objection

Krassimir Nikolov Savov, a conscientious objector to military service, was released from Plovdiv prison in the early part of the year on being granted a pardon by President Stoyanov. He had served half of a one-year sentence for failing to respond to military call-up. The Law on Alternative Service, which allows conscientious objectors to perform a civilian alternative to military service, albeit of double the duration, came into force on 1 January.

AI country report

• Bulgaria: Krassimir Nikolov Savov - prisoner of conscience (AI Index: EUR 15/001/99)