CAT/C/BGR/CO/4-5
Justice established to elaborate a new Penal Code has not as yet discussed the section with
the provisions concerning a new crime incorporating the definition of torture (arts. 1 and 4).
The Committee urges the State party to adopt a definition of torture that covers all
the elements contained in article 1 of the Convention. The State party should take
effective legislative measures to include torture as a separate and specific crime in its
legislation and ensure that penalties for torture are commensurate with the gravity of
this crime. It should ensure that the absolute prohibition against torture is nonderogable and that acts amounting to torture are not subject to any statute of
limitations.
Fundamental legal safeguards – access to a lawyer and legal aid
9.
The Committee notes that the State party has adopted measures both in law and
through the issue of appropriate instructions, guaranteeing the rights of notification of
custody, access to a lawyer, access to an independent doctor and being informed of charges
from the very outset of detention. The Committee is concerned, however, at information
that access to a lawyer during the 24 hours of police custody was not always available in
practice and that such access continued to be a reality for only a minority of persons held by
the police, namely those who could afford a private lawyer. The Committee is also
concerned by allegations that the police are reluctant to grant access to a lawyer from the
very outset of detention and that there have been delays in ex officio lawyers being
contacted and coming to the police station. The Committee is further concerned that the
National Bureau of Legal Aid is understaffed and underresourced, which negatively affects
the rights to fair trial of persons with unequal economic or social status by being translated
into unequal access to justice and the unequal possibility of defence in trial; in addition to
the poor, members of minorities and certain categories of foreigners, such as asylumseekers and irregular migrants, are also denied equal access to justice (art. 2).
The Committee recommends that the Bulgarian authorities re-instruct all police
officers on the legal obligation to grant access to a lawyer to all detainees from the
very outset of their detention. Further, the Committee recommends that the State
party take appropriate measures to remove all obstacles to the right of equal access to
justice; and that the State party ensure that the National Bureau of Legal Aid be
provided with adequate financial and staffing resources in order to fulfil its role with
regard to all categories of detainees.
Police violence and use of firearms
10.
The Committee is concerned by the excessive use of force and of firearms by law
enforcement officers, including the eight cases in which the European Court of Human
Rights ruled against the State party in 2010, half of which resulted in the deaths of the
victims; by the scope of use of firearms allowed in the Ministry of Interior Act (art. 74);
that acts of violence attributed to law enforcement officials include torture, inhuman or
degrading treatment and refusal to provide victims with lifesaving medical assistance; and
that there have been very few prosecutions so far (arts. 2, 12, 13 and 16).
The Committee urges the State party to amend its legislation to ensure that
regulations on the use of firearms conform to international standards, including the
Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. The
State party should also take measures to eradicate all forms of harassment and illtreatment by police during investigations and should promptly, thoroughly and
impartially investigate all allegations of violence applied in an unnecessary and
disproportionate way by law enforcement officials, prosecute and punish those
responsible in proportion to the seriousness of their acts and provide the victims with
compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible.
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