News

4 January 2024

Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva asked Minister of Interior Kalin Stoyanov to inform her about the conclusions of the MoI Inspectorate’s investigation assigned to examine what caused the death of a citizen, Plamen Penev, when he was arrested by police officers from the Ministry’s Regional Directorate in Stara Zagora on 30 December 2023.

The Ombudsman pointed out what the media had reported, viz. that the man disobeyed a police order and that patrol cars chased him downtown where Penev’s vehicle crashed.

“Eyewitnesses of the car accident had their video recordings broadcast on national media and these show several police officers who are trying to open the door where the driver’s seat is of the crashed motor vehicle that the individual in question had been driving while a policeman is trying to break open the windows with kicks. The recordings show that after Plamen Penev was taken out of the car, the police officers knocked him down on the ground to arrest him. It has been proved that Plamen Penev was alive when he was moved out from the vehicle, and that his was a violent death after the police officers resorted to force to take him out. The forensic medical examination assigned indicates, as of now, mechanical asphyxiation (suffocation) as a possible cause, inter alia, for the death. The circumstances as described give reasonable grounds to assume that the man’s death might have been caused by police violence. Moreover, the footage shows at least five police officers around the body of the arrested man,” Prof. Kovacheva wrote.

Further, she recalled that at a news conference the Director of the MoI Regional Directorate in Stara Zagora said that when the driver was taken out of the car to be handcuffed, he suffered convulsions and died and that this does not concur with the initially disseminated information that Penev died of injuries sustained in the traffic accident. The Ombudsman added that on 2 January 2024 the District Prosecutor’s Office in Stara Zagora confirmed that the death was caused by the violence when the police officers pulled the man out of the car.

“I would like to emphasize, in keeping with the Ministry of Interior Act (MoIA), that physical force and auxiliary means shall be used by police officers as a last resort which shall be resorted to only when this is absolutely necessary. Pursuant to Art. 86 MoIA the use of physical force and auxiliary means shall take into consideration the specific circumstances, the nature of the public order violation and the identity of the offender. The police authorities shall use only such force, as is absolutely necessary. In using physical force and auxiliary means, the police authorities must take all measures for protecting the life and health of the targets. The use of physical force and auxiliary means shall be terminated immediately after achieving its lawful objective,” the Ombudsman emphasized.

On this tragic case, the Ombudsman asks the Minister four concrete questions:

Diana Kovacheva wants to know whether there was an abuse of power and whether disproportionate police force was resorted to by the police officers of the Ministry’s Regional Directorate in Stara Zagora in the arrest of Plamen Penev.

The Ombudsman wants to know whether the police officers on site secured emergency medical aid when it became evident that after being taken out of the vehicle, the citizen showed worrying symptoms – convulsions. She wants to know how many of the police officers on site have attended emergency medical aid courses and trainings and whether the Stara Zagora emergency medical service center has been called and if it has been, how long it took the ambulance vehicle to respond and arrive upon the scene.