2.2 TRANSFER OF PRISONERS
Bulgaria with a diagnosis of “polymorphic psychotic disorder with symptoms of schizophrenia,
differential diagnosis - Bleuler’s disease” in the period from 17 May 2016 to 24 June 2016, on the
occasion of a knife attack on his grandmother. It is explicitly stated that he was treated at the
Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine in Ludwigsburg in April 2018.
Attached to the case is a written request from the concerned person, in which he expressed his
wish to be transferred to Bulgaria for treatment. The Regional Court in Bulgaria has identified
the persons from his close circle - his mother, brother and sister. In a court hearing, the mother
expressed her consent to undertake the treatment of her son under the supervision of the local Mental Health Center. The overall assessment of the proceedings in Germany, allowed the
Sofia Appellate Court to accept that it is in principle in accordance with the Bulgarian national
regulations. 37 The German court guaranteed and provided the Bulgarian citizen with a comprehensive and full exercise of his right to defense in the criminal proceedings, which ended with
the imposition of a compulsory medical measure. The concerned person participated personally and with a defense attorney in the proceedings; was informed about the accusation; was
able to make evidentiary requests and actively participate in the process of gathering evidence
for the authorship and other elements of the objective side of the act. Particularly significant
importance when deciding the case, according to the Sofia Appellate Court, should be given
to the main purpose of Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA – the increase of the possibility of
social reintegration of the convicted person. The case contains undoubted data that the therapeutic medical care applied to the Bulgarian citizen in a psychiatric clinic in Germany did not
give good results due to the language barrier and the impossibility of full contact between the
treating doctors and specialists; the lack of contacts outside the clinic; lack of daily contact
by telephone with his family, to whom he is attached. In the decisions of the German Court
special attention is paid to the fact that the concerned person is attached to Bulgaria and his
family linguistically, emotionally and culturally, which is why the prospects and forecasts for
continuing treatment in Bulgaria are more positive than in the clinic in Germany. The decision
also states that the major difficulties facing the treatment of the Bulgarian citizen are the lack
of a supportive environment inside and outside the hospital, the lack of opportunity to be involved in social and other integration/support programs, as they are not accessible to him due
to his unsettled social and health status in Germany. Thus the Sofia Appellate Court rendered a
decision for recognition of the decision of the German court and placement of the concerned
person under compulsory treatment in a mental health centre in Bulgaria.
37
Both under German law and under Bulgarian law, in order to impose compulsory medical measures under Art. 89 of the Criminal Code, it is necessary to establish that the person against whom coercive intervention is intended has committed a socially
dangerous act, i.e. the authorship and other elements from the objective side of the act, as well as the fact of his/her mental incompetence.. The only difference between the two pieces of legislation, which is irrelevant to the case, is that Art. 63 of the German Criminal Code provides for the imposition of coercive medical measures not only in case of lack of criminal responsibility,
but also in case of diminished criminal responsibility of the person, which the Bulgarian substantive criminal law does not know.
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
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