BULGAR PASTORS CONTINUE CONFESSIONS AND REPENTANCE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22883, 1 March 1949, Page 5

BULGAR PASTORS CONTINUE CONFESSIONS AND REPENTANCE

(10.30 a.m.) SOFIA, Feb. 28. Five of the 15 Protestant Church pastors on trial on charges of espionage today went through the familiar routine of denouncing themselves as guilty, pleading repentance, and asking for a new chance to work for the Government,

All said they had now seen tlie error of tlieir ways in

opposing communism.

The court received the pleas of guilty) and confessions at the rate of one every 45 minutes. “The attitude of the investigating authorities was good, noble and humane,” said George Nikolov Eherenv, head of the Pentecostal Church of Bulgaria.

He said that when several other pastors were arrested during the summer and autumn of 1948 he became frightened "because Nikola Naumov, another defendant, had ensnared me and be-, cause of my currency dealings,” he said. He tried to escape across the border into Turkey but was captured.

Another pastor. Micbkov, said: “I want to say that I sincerely repent from the bottom of my heart. I am ashamed of myself to have believed the rumours about the people’s militia. Since I was arrested, no one has insulted me and no one has exerted pressure on me. ’