STRONG BRITISH NOTE TO BULGARIA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25300, 27 September 1947, Page 9

STRONG BRITISH NOTE TO BULGARIA

Trial And Execution Of Mr Petkov “YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF JUDICIAL MURDER” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 26. Britain in a Note of protest to Bulgaria against the execution of Mr Petkov, leader of the Bulgarian Opposition Agrarian Party, says that the trial of Mr Petkov was a travesty of Justice The circumstances, says the Note, “confirmed the sinister impression that the Bulgarian Government was determined to extinguish the last vestiges of liberty in Bulgaria.” • The ?■°l e , add 4 t : “ Mr Pe ‘ kov ’ in the Bri tish Government’s opinion, died tor the cause for which he had always fought—the right of men to hold and express their political convictions according to their personal consciences. Mr Petkov’s execution is yet another example of the use of judicial murder to get rid of people who do not agree with their Government, a procedure incompatible with democracy.” The Note points out that Mr Petkov was executed a week after the Bulgarian peace treaty was ratified. “The evidence introduced in court was clearly not sufficient,” it says. “The three judges and the two State prosecutors were members of the Communist Party. The prosecution speeches were political attacks on Mr Petkov and amounted to nothing more than that he was opposed to the Government. “Three defence lawyers were arrested and held until it was impossible for them to participate in the trial. Political pressure was clearly brought to bear on many witnesses and the Court refused to hear others on the ground that their evidence was without interest.” The Note says that the British Government and people are profoundly shocked by the proceedings, which they regard, not as a genuine trial by due legal processes, but as an attack on an individual because of his. political opinions. “The trial, in fact, was one more manoeuvre in the general campaign ’on which the present Bulgarian Government appears to have embarked to establish in Bulgaria a regime controlled by a minority party and to stifle all those holding other views.”

“No stronger protest, nor one more justified by the known facts, has ever been made by one Government to another,” says the “Daily Telegraph” in a leading article commenting on the British Note to Bulgaria. It adds: “The right to protest in such strong terms cannot be questioned. It arises out of the peace treaty with Bulgaria under which the Bulgarian Government undertook to secure to all its subjects the enjoyment of human rights. Were it not so sanctioned, common humanity would call for such indignation as the British Note expresses at the

parody of justice of which a sincere patriot has been made the victim.” The National Committee of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front has issued a statement in Sofia denying that Mr Petkov was executed because he was the Opposition leader. Such an allegation, said the statement, did not correspond with the fact that Mr Petkov was preparing a coup d’etat. The sentence was severe but just. Bulgarian newspapers report that another 18 members of Opposition parties have been arrested and charged with helping plotters to enter Bulgaria from Greece.