Bulgarian Ombudsman Demands Police Brutality Probe

Bulgaria’s Ombudsman, Ginio Ganev, points out that in case of alleged police brutality, the burden of proof lays on the authorities. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s Ombudsman, Ginio Ganev, is demanding a thorough probe of the alleged police brutality case in the southern city of Kardzhali.

The incident happened on July 23rd, late at night, when 4 plainclothes police officers following a tip about a prostitution ring went into the house of a family of ethnic Turks. The latter insist the police exerted violence and seriously injured their 20-year-old daughter.

Ganev is among the many officials who have received a complaint from the mother, Aysel Mustafova, claiming police abuse.

In a statement, sent Friday to the Prime Minister, the Interior Minister, the Chief Prosecutor, the Speaker of the Parliament, the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, the Ombudsman points out that, according to European laws, a thorough investigation is required in similar cases.

Earlier in the week, Ganev met Mustafova and her family and was presented with their side of the story – that on July 23rd, late at night, 4 plainclothes police officers, without a warrant and without identification, broke into their apartment, pushing the husband on the floor and handcuffing him, kicking the mother and pointing a gun at her head, and splitting the daughter’s forehead, causing them anguish and fear. The family further say they opened the front door without resistance and presented Ganev with medical diagnosis, certifying they have been mentally and physically hurt along with picture evidence.

The Ombudsman explains in his letter the Human Rights Court in Strasburg postulates that in cases of citizens complaining about police violence, the burden of proof lays on the authorities; there are 3 mandatory requirements in such probes – thoroughness, effectiveness, and evidence leading to punishment of those who have violated the law; the investigative teams must be independent from those subject to the probe – in hierarchy, institutionally and in the practice.

On May 18 the police in Kardzhali received a tip that a cab driver, Dzhem Mustafa, who has a previous conviction for pimping and a jail sentence, is involved in prostitution rings. In the evening of July 23, through special surveillance devices, they established that Karim Mustafov, the son of the family in question, ordered for his friends two prostitutes from Mustafa. The police followed the girls' automobile to Mustafov’s address, but lost them after the women left the car. They then went to Mustafovi’s apartment.

Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, firmly defends the action of the police while Dzem Mustafa is under permanent detention on pimping charges.

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