European Court reaches two verdicts in cases against Bulgaria

2003 news

2002 news

See the texts fof the judgments :

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg reached a verdict against Bulgaria in the case of Toteva v. Bulgaria. In another case, Lotter and Lotter v. Bulgaria the parties reached a friendly settlement.

In the case of Girgina Toteva, the applicant had complained that in 1995 she had been beaten in a police station in Sevlievo, where she had been called after a dispute with a neighbour. She was 67 at the time. She quarreled with the neighbour in front of the policemen and was taken to the police station, where Toteva alleges she was beaten. She hit her head after falling to the ground. Her daughter wanted an investigation, but she claims it was conducted formally. The police accused the woman of inflicting medium bodily injury to a policeman and sentenced her to 6 months suspended imprisonment.

The European Court stated, that Bulgaria had violated Article 3 of the European Convention, which prohibits torture. The Court did not accept the allegations against the applicant as truthful, since the state had failed to carry out a thorough investigation of her complaint.

On the other case, the applicants are two Jehovah's Witnesses, Austrian nationals, who complained that they were expelled from the country only on account of being Jehovah's Witnesses. The applicants complained of violation of their right to freedom of religion. In this case, the parties reached a friendly settlement.

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