Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
23
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
officer on duty informed them that they would be held
in custody for 24 hours. At 7pm Stefan Stefanov
Stoyanov was released following an intervention by
his parents. The other four detainees were released the
following day at 10.30.am after the prosecutor on duty
rejected the police request for an investigation on the
grounds that no offence had been committed.
However, on 9 January, under instructions of the
Prosecutor before the Supreme Court of Cassation
Mario Stoyanov, an investigation was initiated against
Iliyan Obretenov and Milen Iliev for hooliganism,
under Article 324, paragraph 1, of the Penal Code. On
25 January the charge was requalified as hooliganism
committed under aggravated circumstances, under
Article 325, paragraph 2. In the course of the
investigation all the evidence proposed by the defence
counsel was rejected and Obretenov and Iliev were
indicted. On 23 April the court acquitted the
defendants of all charges. The court reportedly
established that the offence of hooliganism could not
be committed by the lawful exercise of the right to
freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by the
Bulgarian Constitution. This decision was appealed by
the Sofia District Prosecutor. The case was still
pending at the end of the period under review.
In the meantime, on 19 February, in front of Vasil
Levski monument in Sofia, the police arrested Iliyan
Obretenov and 72-year-old Manol Krumov for
holding a banner “No to NATO! No to slavery!”. They
were held in a police station for several hours before
being issued with a warning.
Deaths in custody in suspicious circumstances
and police ill-treatment
According to information received from the Bulgarian
Helsinki Committee (BHC), a local human rights
organization, on 11 January police searching for a
murder suspect entered the “Pavlovo” restaurant in
Sofia. Mehmed Mumun (also known as Milotin
Mironov), a 46-year-old man who reportedly tried to
avoid the police check by attempting to leave the
premises through a bathroom window, was
apprehended. The Ministry of the Interior spokesman
later claimed that the man, who was not the suspect
wanted, resisted arrest and had to be handcuffed.
Mehmed Mumun then complained that he was not
feeling well and fainted. He reportedly died before he
could
receive
emergency
medical
treatment.
However,
witnesses
interviewed
by
BHC
representatives stated that the officers kicked Mehmed
Mumun all over his body after he was brought down
to the ground. An autopsy reportedly established that
Mehmed Mumun had suffered fractures to three ribs
and that he had previously had a heart attack. At the
time the Forensic Medical Department could not
establish the cause of death pending additional tests.
An investigation into Mehmed Mumun’s death is
reportedly under way.
On 14 February at around 7.30pm in Tserovo, a
village on the outskirts of Sofia, a man named Iliya
Georgiev was stopped while driving in the centre of
the village by three men in plainclothes who
brandished guns and shouted that they were police
officers. Earlier the officers reportedly stopped a
driver of a BMW, took him out of the car and beat him.
Then they reportedly stopped four other young men
driving through the village square, ordered them to
stand with their arms against the cars and conducted
body searches in a violent manner. One driver was
made to crawl on the ground. Later, one of the police
officers hit Yordan Lyubenov, another young driver,
on the head with the butt of the gun he was holding.
This resulted in the reportedly inadvertent firing of the
gun, and the bullet hit the wall of the mayor’s office.
At the time the square held between 20 to 30 people
who had apparently gathered there to observe the
conduct of the police officers who appeared to be
under the influence of alcohol. Shortly after the
shooting, a police patrol from Svoga arrived and took
statements from all involved in the incident. On 19
February the Sofia Regional Department of Internal
Affairs reportedly issued a statement that the three
officers involved in the ill-treatment would be
suspended after an internal inquiry established that the
officers “seriously violated professional ethics”.
However, no information was available whether the
officers would be subjected to any criminal
proceedings.
On 17 March Trud, a daily newspaper, reported
that a sergeant employed in the “Investigative
Detention” unit had beaten a taxi driver in Sofia. The
incident was said to have taken place on 15 March
when the officer hailed a taxi in Brock 26 of “Krasna
polyana” district. During the journey he behaved
arrogantly and the driver Zhivko Ivanov asked him to
leave the vehicle. The sergeant then hit Zhivko
Ivanov, left the car and got into another car.
Colleagues of the beaten driver followed this car and
stopped it close to the British Embassy, taking the
officer to the Sredets police station.
A small number of the reported cases of police
torture and ill-treatment are effectively investigated.
Even then, such investigations are usually protracted
and it may take many years for the authorities to bring
to justice those responsible. On 4 January it was
reported in Trud that former sergeants from Nikopol,
Yanko Tsvetanov and Tihomir Ferdinandov, were
sentenced to five and six years’ imprisonment
respectively for ill-treating of a detainee who as a
result died from injuries suffered. The court reportedly
established that on 15 November 1994 the two officers
brought Hristo Nikolov to the police station for
questioning about a theft. The officers then beat him
in order to make him confess. This was witnessed by
Aleksander Karailiev, who was meant to testify
against Hristo Nikolov. The detainee fainted and was
taken to a hospital where he died shortly afterwards.
Karailiev kept silent for a year about the incident
because he was threatened by the police officers, but
subsequently wrote about it to the Chief Prosecutor.
New reports of unlawful use of firearms
by police officers