site.btaReport Says Police Brutality Ranges from Handcuffs to Choking

Report Says Police Brutality Ranges from Handcuffs to Choking

Sofia, July 29 (BTA) - A report by the Bulgarian Helsinki
Committee (BHC) shows that 28 per cent of convicts in Bulgaria
became victims of physical violence while they were being
arrested or taken to the police station. Forms of violence range
 widely from using handcuffs and truncheons to beating and using
 electric current to choking, dragging and pressing one's head
into water.

The report is based on interviews with 1,700 convicts in 29
prisons. BHC's Zhenya Ivanova said such victims of violence
rarely complain because they are afraid. She conceded, however,
that some respondents could be exaggerating or making things up.
 The most brutal cases were reported in Bourgas, Sliven and
Pleven. Several people reportedly had their heads forced into
puddles near the Koprinka Dam in Central Bulgaria.

BHC Chairman Krassimir Kunev said such brutal acts were
committed deliberately in order to extract confessions or as
punishment.

Some 34 per cent of convicts say they did not have adequate
access to legal assistance while staying in police custody. Some
 27 per cent of foreign convicts complain of police brutality in
 the early stages of their cases.

Milorad Yordanov of the Interior Ministry Academy expressed hope
 that the study is adequate. He said the Interior Ministry is
taking measures, laying particular emphasis on the training of
police officers.