Press Release: ECHR Rules Against Bulgaria On Yet Another Police Brutality Case
In the case of Iordan Petrov against Bulgaria the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the defendant had been beaten during the arrest and police custody, and subsequently found guilty on the basis of a false testimony obtained through violence.
On Jan 24th 2012 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled against Bulgaria in yet another case involving the assault of a detainee by police and detention officers in Varna during a police custody. Lawyers Stefanova and Ekimdziev served as the defendant’s representatives in court. The defendant was detained in January 2001 in Gabrovo and was later transferred to Varna on suspicions of fatally shooting a policeman a few days earlier. During his detention in Gabrovo a medical report attested to a gunshot wound to the body but no signs of physical violence. According to the report of the director of Regional Police – Gabrovo, the defendant did not resist arrest and was unarmed. Mr. Petrov claims that the police officers in Varna made him stand with legs wide open, handcuffed and with his face against the wall. He was forced to stay in this position for long enough until he fainted. Once on the floor, the police officers started to kick and hit him, demanding that he sign a false testimony stating that he shot down their colleague and was involved with armed robberies and murder. Subsequently, he was punched and kicked in the head by detention officers in Varna where he was transferred on the next day. His concussions were ascertained by a medical report issued four days after his detention.
During one of the interrogations in detention, he confessed to having shot the police officer. As a result, he was sentenced to life in prison, without the right to exchange the sentence, despite the fact that he partially forwent his testimony during the trial asserting that it was obtained through violence.
Mr Petrov appealed to the Military Prosecutor’s Office which refused to start pre-trial proceedings defending the legality of using violence in arresting a potentially dangerous suspect who refused cooperation upon arrest.
The defendant also stated that he was beaten by the escorting officers three years later during one of the escorts to the trial location. He filed a complaint to the Military Prosecutor’s Office about the incident which was also denied with the motivation that physical violence was legally used to counteract his aggressive behavior.
The defendant who is serving his sentence in Varna filed a separate complaint about the living conditions in the jail. He claimed that the hygiene in the jail was very poor, that there were cockroaches and rats, the food portions were meager and there was no running water or toilets in the cells.
The ECHR also held that there was a violation of Article 3 of the European Human Rights Convention on all charges regarding the use of violence on part of the police and detention officers, as well as the escorting policemen. The Court states that the Bulgarian government has not offered sufficient explanations about the origin of the documentation concerning the defendant’s serious physical traumas of the defendant and that, even if it may have been acceptable to use violence on certain occasions, it was grossly overused. The Court also found a breach of Article 3 as a result of the inadequately conducted investigations of the incidents following Mr. Petrov’s filing of complaints. The living conditions of the jail in Varna were deemed humiliating and also a breach of Article 3 of the Convention.
The ECHR found a violation of Mr. Petrov’s right to a just trial as guaranteed by Article 6 of the Convention due to the fact that the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Cassation in Bulgaria delivered a sentence on the basis of a testimony obtained with violence. The use of such testimonies, according to the ECHR, “destroys in and of itself a just trial.”
The ECHR ruled that Bulgaria ought to compensate the defendant with 10 000 euro for non-material damage and 6 650 euro in trial charges.