NATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK CONCERNING THE APPLICATION OF CROSS-BORDER INSTRUMENTS TO PERSONS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND/OR PSYCHOSOCIAL DISABILITIES IN LAW AND IN PRACTICE remand measure and decreed that the requested person be released immediately and terminated the proceedings before the Sofia Appellate Court.11 A copy of the decision was sent to the Ministry of Justice, to the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor’s Office and to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Vratsa to initiate compulsory treatment in psychiatric hospital. 2.2 Transfer of Prisoners This research has not found any national statistics concerning the application of the FD about the Transfer of Prisoners at all and when persons with IPD are involved. All requested authorities stated that the requested information requires legal analysis which they do not make.12 The interviewees under the present research were not aware of any such cases. The FD about the Transfer of Prisoners is transposed in the Law on Recognition, Implementation and Transfer of Judicial Acts for the Imposition of Imprisonment or of Measures Including Deprivation of Liberty, enforced on 1 January 2020.13 It does not contain specific provisions related to convicted persons with IPD and is applicable to them. The competent authority in the Republic of Bulgaria to recognise judicial acts for the imposition of deprivation of liberty or of measures involving deprivation of liberty, decreed in another Member State, is the regional court at the place of residence of the convicted person. When the place of residence of the person in Bulgaria is unknown or he/she does not live in the country, the Sofia City Court is competent to consider and recognise the judicial act.14 During the consultations, the court may present a reasoned opinion regarding the impossibility of improving the resocialisation of the convicted person in Bulgaria.15 If necessary, the court conducts consultations with the competent authority of the issuing country in order to establish the nature of the family, the linguistic, cultural, social, economic or other relations of the convicted person in Bulgaria with a view to improving the possibilities for his/her resocialisation.16 The court hears the case in a single judge panel with the mandatory participation of a prosecutor and summoning the convicted person. If the person does not have a lawyer, the court ap- 11 Art. 24, para. 1, item 5 of the Criminal Procedure Code states that: “the initiated proceedings are terminated when, after committing the crime, the perpetrator fell into a prolonged disorder of consciousness/mind, which excludes mental competence.” 12 Bulgaria, Reply to the written request under the Access to Public Information Act № 95-00-53/22/28.04.2022 of the Ministry of Justice; Reply to the written request under the Access to Public Information Act № L-1698/21.04 2022-2 of the “Execution of Punishments” Directorate at the Ministry of Justice; Reply to the written request under the Access to Public Information Act № 93-00-96/21.04.2022 of the Ministry of Healthcare; Reply to the written request under the Access to Public Information Act № 1086/29.04.2022 of the Supreme Prosecution Office. 13 Bulgaria, Law on Recognition, Implementation and Transfer of Judicial Acts for the Imposition of Imprisonment or of Measures Including Deprivation of Liberty (Закон за признаване, изпълнение и изпращане на съдебни актове за налагане на наказание лишаване от свобода или на мерки, включващи лишаване от свобода) (shortly, Transfer of Prisoners Transposing Act) (1.01.2020), available in Bulgarian at: https://www.lex.bg/bg/laws/ldoc/2137193665. 14 Bulgaria, Transfer of Prisoners Transposing Act, Art. 7. 15 Bulgaria, Transfer of Prisoners Transposing Act, Art. 9, para. 3. 16 Bulgaria, Transfer of Prisoners Transposing Act, Art. 10, para. 3. 14 SLAVKA KUKOVA