CONFIDENTIAL
BULGARIA
Report by Eastern European and Soviet Department
Rating suggested by Department
4
Right No.
(i) No cases are currently known of anyone
imprisoned without trial. According to Article 48 of the State Constitution a detention period may not exceed 24 hours without a prosecutor's decision and to Article 203 of the penal code the detention period may not be extended to more than 10 days for investigative purposes without an indictment being filed. On the other hand, it is extremely doubtful that, in practice, a Bulgarian victim of unlawful arrest would have an enforceable right to compensation.
(ii) The systematic employment of torture is
(iii)
not known.
Slavery does not exist.
(iv) Although Article 54 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and of the media, in practice it is illegal to propagate views considered harmful to the State under Article 108 of the Criminal Code.
(v) According to Articles 128 and 129 of the
Constitution, judges are appointed by election, are independent and subject to the law. In Article 125 the courts are said, i.a., "to interpret socialist legislation and help educate the people in the cause of socialism..... The judiciary, however,
is generally assumed to be amenable to Party pressure and is not independent in the strict sense of the word.
(vi) Trade unions work in close co-operation with the Communist Party and can not be said to have any degree of freedom.
CONFIDENTIAL
/(vii)
2
О
10
10
10
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