site.btaCouncil of Europe's Committee for Prevention of Torture Criticizes Bulgaria

Council of Europe's Committee for Prevention of Torture Criticizes Bulgaria


Brussels/Strasbourg, March 26 (BTA Correspondent Nikolay
Jeliazkov) - The Council of Europe's European Committee for the
Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CPT) Thursday made a public statement concerning
Bulgaria. The press service of the Council of Europe told BTA
that this is the seventh time in its 25-year history that the
institution takes such a step, the previous cases having
involved Greece, the Russian Federation (three times concerning
Chechnya) and Turkey (two times).

The statement concerning Bulgaria was prompted by the bad
treatment of detained persons at police stations, investigation
detention facilities (IDFs) and prisons, as well as by the poor
state of Bulgarian prisons.

The statement reads that the CPT has carried out ten visits to
Bulgaria since 1995. In the course of those visits, delegations
of the Committee have visited all but one prison, several IDFs
and numerous police establishments in the country. Major
shortcomings have been identified during these visits,
especially as concerns the police and penitentiary
establishments. Repeated recommendations have been made over the
last 20 years concerning these two areas.

The statement reads further that Bulgaria is obliged to take not
only steps so as to facilitate the visiting delegation's tasks,
but also decisive action so as to improve the situation in the
light of the CPT's recommendations. However, the vast majority
of these recommendations have remained unimplemented, or only
partially implemented. In the course of the Committee's visits
to Bulgaria in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015, the CPT's delegations
witnessed a lack of decisive action by the authorities leading
to a steady deterioration in the situation of persons deprived
of their liberty.

The March/April 2014 visit report highlighted a number of
long-standing concerns, some of them dating back to the very
first periodic visit to Bulgaria in 1995, as regards the
phenomenon of ill-treatment (both in the police and the prison
context), inter-prisoner violence, prison overcrowding,poor
material conditions of detention in IDFs and prisons, inadequate
prison health-care services and low custodial staffing levels,
as well as concerns related to discipline, segregation and
contact
with the outside world. The responses of the Bulgarian
authorities to this report "were succinct, contained very little
new information and failed to address the majority of the
Committee's recommendations, usually merely quoting the existing
legislation and/or explaining the lack of action by referring to
budgetary constraints," the statement reads.

During its 2015 visit, the Committee reviewed the treatment and
detention conditions of persons held at Sofia, Bourgas and Varna
prisons, as well as at Sofia IDF. The findings made during this
visit (an increase in the number of allegations of deliberate
physical ill-treatment of persons detained by the police in
Sofia and Bourgas since the CPT's 2014 visit; a significant risk
for men and women - including juveniles - to be ill-treated in
the custody of the police both at the time of apprehension and
during subsequent questioning) demonstrate that little or no
progress has been achieved in the implementation of key
recommendations repeatedly made by the CPT, the statement reads
further.

"Very little progress, if any, has been made as regards the
legal safeguards against police ill-treatment,and the CPT's key
recommendations in this sphere are still to be implemented. In
particular, access to a lawyer remained an exception during the
initial 24 hours of police custody and the ex officio lawyers
did not perform their function as a safeguard against
ill-treatment," the CPT says in its statement. The existing
specific rules as regards medical confidentiality and the
recording of injuries continue to be routinely ignored in
practice, the Committee adds.

The situation as regards physical ill-treatment of prisoners by
staff remains alarming in the three prisons visited in 2015. At
Sofia IDF, a clear deterioration was noted with a significant
rise in the number of allegations of deliberate physical
ill-treatment (slaps, punches and kicks) of inmates, including
juveniles, by staff, the statement reads.

"As described in the reports on the visits carried out in 2012
and 2014, and as acknowledged by the Bulgarian authorities,
corruption remains endemic in the Bulgarian prison system," the
text reads. Prisoners are asked to pay custodial,
administrative, and/or medical staff for many services provided
for by the law or for being granted various privileges (such as
leave and additional or open-type visits).

Overcrowding remains a very problematic issue in the Bulgarian
prison system. For
example, at Bourgas Prison, the vast majority of inmates had
less than 2 sq m of living space in multioccupancy cells. The
material conditions at Sofia, Bourgas, and Varna prisons
remained characterised by an ever-worsening state of
dilapidation. "Most parts of the establishments visited were
unfit for human accommodation and
represented a serious health risk for both inmates and staff. To
sum up, in the Committee's view, the material conditions alone
in the three prisons visited could be seen as amounting to
inhuman and degrading treatment," the statement reads.

"Regarding health care, the accessibility and quality of the
medical services in all the prisons visited (and the IDF in
Sofia) were as poor as they had been in the past. Further, the
quality of medical recording had even worsened. It is noteworthy
in this respect that the keeping of the register on traumatic
injuries had been discontinued at Sofia and Bourgas prisons
shortly after the CPT's 2014 visit. The confidentiality of
medical examinations and documentation was not respected. In
addition, in prisons, the initial medical examination hardly
ever took place within the first 24 hours after the inmates'
arrival, as recommended by the Committee," the CPT says.

"The findings of the 2015 visit demonstrate again that little or
nothing has been
done as regards all the above-mentioned long-standing problems.
This state of affairs highlights a persistent failure by the
Bulgarian authorities to address most of the fundamental
shortcomings in the treatment and conditions of detention of
persons deprived of their liberty, despite the specific
recommendations repeatedly made by the Committee. The CPT is of
the view that action in this respect is long overdue and that
the approach to the whole issue of deprivation of liberty in
Bulgaria
should radically change," the statement reads.

In the CPT's view, having in place a sound legislative framework
is important but, if laws are not backed by decisive, concrete
and effective measures to
implement them, they will remain a dead letter and the treatment
and conditions of persons deprived of their liberty in Bulgaria
will deteriorate even further. "As regards the treatment of
persons detained by law enforcement agencies, resolute action is
required to ensure the practical and meaningful operation of
fundamental safeguards against ill-treatment (including the
notification of custody, access to a lawyer, access to a doctor,
and information on rights)," the CPT recommends.

The Committee notes that its aim in making this public statement
is to motivate and assist the Bulgarian authorities, and in
particular the Interior Ministry and the Justice Ministry, to
"take decisive action in line with the fundamental values to
which Bulgaria, as a member state of the Council of Europe and
the European Union, has subscribed". The CPT's long-standing
recommendations should be seen as a tool that helps the
Bulgarian authorities to identify shortcomings and make the
necessary changes, the statement reads.