26 July 2004

:: NEWS ::

Declaration of Bulgarian NGOs and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Bulgaria: Stop violent acts against priests from the Synod of Bishop Inokentii

2003 news

2002 news

Sofia, July 26, 2004 - On July 21 and 22, 2004, the police raided dozens of Orthodox temples, monasteries and other properties across the country, driving out their priests and closing them down. The raids were carried out with a prosecutor's warrant in churches managed by the Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church chaired by Bishop Inokentii. New priests were appointed in some churches belonging to the Synod of Patriarch Maxim. Priests and citizens were arrested during the police raids, which according to media reports were carried out in 250 churches.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has been divided for 12 years in two synods. The priests from the so-called Alternative Synod of Bishop Inokentii have disputed the legitimacy of Patriarch Maxim. They claim that he has not been canonically elected by a Church and People's Council, but appointed to his post 30 years ago by Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party in defiance of the canon. The executive branch and prosecutor's office, on the other hand, recognize the Synod of Patriarch Maxim as the only legitimate one. The factual recognition was legally endorsed with the adoption of a new Denominations Act on December 20, 2002. The Act gives privileged status to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Article 10) and further provides that "Persons who at the time of entry into force of this Act have separated from a registered religious institution in violation of the duly adopted Statute shall not use an identical name or use or make claims to the property of that institution" (para. 3 of the Act's transitional and concluding provisions). The executive branch and the prosecutor's office hold that Patriarch Maxim is the one and only representative of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and, consequently, the priests from the Synod of Bishop Inokentii have no right to use and preach in their temples. Most of them have been serving on these churches for years.

The forceful expelling of dozens of priests from their churches is the gravest violation of the religious rights of Bulgarian citizens after the 1989 changes. It is an act of brutal state interference in the internal life of a religious community, which - as the European Court of Human Rights has stated on numerous occasions - is unacceptable. The Court held this position in its judgment against Bulgaria in the case of Hasan and Chaush v. Bulgaria in 2000. This brutal act has deprived hundreds of thousands of Bulgarian Orthodox Christians of the possibility to exercise their religious rights in accordance with their inner convictions. The Bulgarian government is thus carrying out a mass scale violation of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

We call on the Bulgarian government:

- To immediately stop the violent acts against the priests from the Synod of Bishop Inokentii, to restore them to their churches and to put a stop to the interference with force in the internal disputes between the two factions in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church;

- To carry out an investigation and to bring to justice the perpetrators of the arbitrary acts in accordance with the law.

We call on Parliament to amend the Denominations Act in accordance with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights.

International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
Tolerance Foundation
Bulgarian Legal Society

For more information:

Krassimir Kanev, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, 359 898 528 753 (mobile)
Emil Cohen, Tolerance Foundation, 359 888 335 707 (mobile)
Ivan Gruikin, Bulgarian Legal Society, 359 898 912 516 (mobile)

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