PASTOR ARRESTED IN SOFIA

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25737, 24 February 1949, Page 5

PASTOR ARRESTED IN SOFIA

CONFESSION SAID TO BE FALSE

“SECURED UNDER DURESS AND TORTURE”

LONDON, February 22. The “confession” of the Rev. Yanko Ivanov, a Methodist Church superintendent in Sofia, who is one of the 15 Bulgarian pastors arrested on charges of espionage for Britain and the United States, “could only have been secured under duress and torture,” said Dr. Paul Garber, Methodist Eishop for Central and Southern Europe, who is quoted by the Geneva correspondent of the Associated Press. Dr. Garber said he had reliable information from Sofia that Mr Ivanov while under arrest, had beei\ questioned for 24 hours at a time without intermission. Mr Ivanov, although lame, had been forced to stand for hours and had been deprived of food and toilet privileges for long periods. He had also been forced to do hard manual labour in a concentration camp. Dr. Garber said that Mr Ivanov’s only “offence” had been to refuse to endorse the Communist regime in Bulgaria. He was reliably informed that Mr Ivanov had been offered his freedom if he would sign a pledge of loyalty to the present regime and act as a spy for the Government, but he had refused.

Mr Ivanov’s wife had also been mistreated by Bulgarian officials and forced to dig ditches and break stones in a work brigade in the streets of Sofia. Mr Ivanov’s two sons had also been arrested. One had been sent to a labour camp, and nothing had been heard from the other since November. Dr. Garber said that the Bulgarian charge that a school teacher and missionary, Miss Melanie Turner, had been an American spy was preposterous. He recalled that Miss Turner remained with the Bulgarian people during the occupation by the Nazis, who interned her.

“The great popularity of this selfsacrificing American Methodist missionary in Bulgaria is the real reason for the Communist attack on her,” he said.

The Bulgarian Foreign Office to-day notified the British Legation in Sofia that two members of the Legation staff could attend the trial of the 15 pastors, which will begin on Friday.