LAST VESTIGES OF LIBERTY DISAPPEARING IN BULGARIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 September 1947, Page 8

LAST VESTIGES OF LIBERTY DISAPPEARING IN BULGARIA

LONDON, September 26. Britain iri 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 Note adds: “Mr Petkov, in the British Government’s opinion, died for the cause for which he had always fought—-the right o.f 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. ‘ITHe 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. Political Passion

“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, lias ever been made by one Government to another,” says the Daily Telegraph in a leading article commmenting 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 lias been made the victim.” More Arrests

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.