Human Rights in Bulgaria's Closed Institutions
November 2004 he had been brutally beaten by policemen. The beatings continued after he was taken to the district police station where 7-8 persons simultaneously assaulted him, beat him with truncheons and kicked him. During his 24 hour detention he was not locked into a cell but was tied up in the duty officer’s room. S. V. D. in the Plovdiv prison said that on his arrest at his home in Plovdiv in August 2004, plainclothes police officers had beaten him and the assault had continued in an office on the 3rd floor of the 3rd district police station in the city. During the assault the policemen used a chain, a chair leg and truncheons. Also, for an hour and a half he was forced to stand on tiptoe and lean against the wall without being allowed to stand on his feet. Again in the prison in Plovdiv, C. A. A. said that in February 2005 he had been arrested by plainclothes policemen in the city and after being taken to the 4 th district police station was beaten by five police officers in a room on the second floor. The assault continued for several hours with short interruptions. A twenty year old illiterate Roma prisoner in the Bobovdol prison (E. V. M.) was detained on the 12th April 2004 in the Dupnitsa district police station by two uniformed policemen who punched and kicked him during an interrogation in the district police station building. Afterwards he was taken to the hospital in Dupnitsa and the doctor who examined him said that there were no traces of injury. He was not given any document from the examination. After the assault he was provided with a legal aid defence counsel, who also failed to advise him to seek protection against police violence with regard to the assault. K. D. D., a 27 year old Roma prisoner in the Plovdiv prison, recounted his detention on the 4th – 5th May 2005 at the 3rd district police station in Plovdiv. He was beaten in the police officers’ briefing room on the first floor of the district police station building by three uniformed policemen and one plainclothes officer, who hit him all over his body. Afterwards they did not allow him to call his wife or use a legal aid defence counsel. He was examined by doctor who bandaged his head, which had sustained severe injury which caused him to lose consciousness. He also told the doctor in the remand centre about his injuries, but she also paid no attention to this. A 25 year old ethnic Bulgarian prisoner in the Plovdiv prison recounted his detention in the 6th district police station on the 28th to 30th September 2005. Until the 6th October 2005 he had been detained and afterwards was taken to prison. He had been detained on two successive days for 24 hours each at the 6 th district police station. He had not been given declarations in accordance with Interior Ministry Instruction 167 to fill in. He had not been examined by a doctor in the district police station nor in the remand centre. He had been undergoing withdrawal symptoms. The Centre for Urgent Medical Assistance had been called and he was injected with diazepam. He was not allowed to call his family after detention, nor to buy food or cigarettes. He does not remember whether he was beaten by policemen. A 23 year old Roma prisoner in the Pleven prison recounted his detention on the 8th March 2003 in the Pavlikeni district police station by two plainclothes police officers,
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