AI is concerned about the number of allegations it receives of ill-treatment of Roma (Gypsies) throughout Bulgaria by law enforcement officers. The organization believes most instances of such ill-treatment to be racially motivated and that ill-treatment of Roma to be one of Bulgaria’s major human rights problems. Roma have also been subject to acts of racial violence by civilians from which the the authorities have failed adequately to protect them. This report documents the following examples of violence against Roma: torture and death of Zahari Aleksandrov Stefanov, an ethnic Turk married to a Rom; torture and ill-treatment of 9 Roma in Stara Zagora; torture and ill-treatment of Roma in Glushnik; racial attacks against the Roma of Dolno Belotintsi; racial attacks against the Roma in Pleven; and torture and ill-treatment of Roma in Pazardjik and the death in detention of Lybucho Sofiev Terziev.
