E/CN.4/1995/34
page 19
patrols arrived to apprehend the suspect. A large crowd gathered and began
throwing objects at the police. Believing that his life and the life of a
colleague were endangered, the senior sergeant, Nedelcho Naidenov, shot
Nedelcho Anguelov Ianev. A charge was registered against the sergeant at the
Regional Military Prosecutor’s Office. The source subsequently informed the
Special Rapporteur that it was unclear as to whether any investigation had
occurred into allegations of indiscriminate beatings during the incident. The
source also reported that government representatives had not acknowledged that
any ill-treatment of Roma by police in Pazardjik had occurred, even though the
initial information concerning the incident had been compiled by ethnic
minority experts working for the President of the Republic.
78.
In regard to alleged excessive use of police force in Novi Pazar,
the Government replied that on 5 April 1993, the police had undertaken an
operation to catch a large number of persons who had been in hiding or had
failed to appear before the examining magistrate after being summoned. No
person detained in the operation had complained of being beaten and no signs
of violence had been discovered.
79. With respect to the alleged ill-treatment of 14-year-old Anton Stefanov
Assenov, the Government replied that the allegations had not been
substantiated. A police officer on duty had apprehended him at the bus
station after observing him gambling and had taken him to the bureau of
traffic control, whereupon Anton Assenov’s father entered the room and started
to beat his son. The senior sergeant warned the father to stop the beating,
but when he failed to comply the sergeant was forced to take both father and
son to the police station. A complaint was lodged at the Regional Military
Prosecutor’s Office in Varna by Anton Assenov’s parents against police
officials for the beating of their son, but the Deputy Regional Prosecutor has
issued a decree by which it refused to initiate legal proceedings. The source
of the information subsequently reported to the Special Rapporteur that the
decision not to prosecute had been based solely on the testimony of the police
officers allegedly involved in the beating and that the appeal to the Chief
Military Prosecutor had been rejected without a review of all the evidence,
including the testimony of the victims.
80. With regard to the alleged ill-treatment of Hristo Nedialkov Hristov,
resulting in the removal of a kidney and a lung, the Government replied that
he had been detained after fleeing from police. After he had ignored oral
warnings and a warning shot and after he had resisted arrest with a knife, the
police resorted to force to subdue him. During examination at the Regional
Hospital Hristov, in the presence of the examining doctor, admitted that his
beatings had been inflicted by "his own people" in the "Lozenets" quarter of
Stara Zagora. Thus, his physical injuries were determined to have originated
from unknown individuals. The source of the allegations subsequently informed
the Special Rapporteur that it was concerned that police investigating the
case had not interviewed witnesses who saw Hristov before he was taken to the
police station and had not taken testimony from local human rights activists
who after visiting him in hospital alleged that doctors and other medical
staff had been intimidated by local police.
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