http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=751
BULGARIA: Massive fines for bishops charged as "impostors"?
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
Metropolitan Inokenty (Petrov) of the Orthodox "Alternative Synod" has
been warned he faces a fine of more than 90,000 US dollars if found
guilty under the Criminal Code of describing himself as deputy head of
the Holy Synod and Metropolitan of Sofia. Prosecutors assert that only
bishops of the Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarchate can claim to be Orthodox
bishops and any others are impostors. Inokenty's criminal trial was
postponed on 22 March until 5 June because he was ill. The trial on
identical charges of Metropolitan Gavriil (Galev) began in Blagoevgrad
on 28 March but was adjourned until 19 May. The lawyer for the two,
Ivan Gruikin, has denounced these criminal prosecutions as a "scandal",
telling Forum 18 News Service they violate the separation of church and
state. The government has in recent years favoured the Patriarchate
over the rival Alternative Synod which emerged in the wake of a split
in the Church in 1992.
The lawyer for two senior members of the Orthodox hierarchy of the
"Alternative Synod" facing massive fines if found guilty under the
Criminal Code for declaring that they are bishops of the Bulgarian
Orthodox Church has denounced the cases as "stupid" and "absurd".
"These are political cases designed to isolate them from their
followers and to intimidate them," Ivan Gruikin told Forum 18 News
Service from the Bulgarian capital Sofia on 28 March. "I believe the
prosecutions are a scandal as they violate above all the separation of
church and state." He said he believes the very fact these prosecutions
are underway might harm Bulgaria's chances of acceding to the European
Union.
Gruikin insisted that prosecutors' and courts' interventions into who
is and is not a legitimate religious leader violates religious
communities' self-determination. "Anyone can say they are the Dalai
Lama, or Christ or the Pope," Gruikin told Forum 18. "This is not a
matter for the state."
Regarding these prosecutions as "questionable" in the light of
international human rights standards is Yanko Grozev, who has taken up
legal cases on behalf of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. "These
charges are about a dispute between religious fractions," he told Forum
18 from Sofia on 29 March. "Under international law the government has
a duty to stay neutral in such a dispute, but it did not." He said this
is why the government's position has been challenged at the European
Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Forum 18 was unable to immediately reach Ivan Jelev, the director of
the government's Religious Affairs Directorate to find out why the
government was intervening in internal religious affairs. But deputy
director Georgi Krustev refused even to talk to Forum 18 on 29 March,
declaring through an aide that he was unable to discuss specific
questions.
The two wings of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church emerged after a 1992
schism led by those who alleged that Patriarch Maksim had uncanonically
been elected to head the Church in 1971 as he had in reality been
nominated by the then Communist authorities. Officials have in recent
years firmly backed the Patriarchate (which also retains the
recognition of the rest of the Orthodox world) and declared that
Bulgaria's controversial 2002 religion law was specifically aimed at
"reuniting" the divided Orthodox Church.
After increasing official hostility to the "Alternative Synod", as
opponents of Patriarch Maksim were dubbed, the authorities expelled all
Alternative Synod followers from their churches in a mass swoop in July
- Officials then declared the schism "ended", despite the existence
of many parishes of the Alternative Synod, which struggle to survive
without parishes. Official hostility has continued (see F18News 17
March 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=745).
Separate cases against the head of the Synod, Metropolitan Inokenty
(Petrov), and Metropolitan Gavriil (Galev) of Nevrokop under Article
274 part 1 of the Criminal Code, which punishes "unwarrantedly
committing an act within the scope of the office of an official which
he does not occupy" with a penalty of up to one year's imprisonment.
One source told Forum 18 they believe the cases were launched at the
instigation of the National Security Service.
Although it is not quite clear whether this article can be applied to
officials working outside the framework of the government, such as
officials of religious communities, Gruikin believes it can. Sharing
his view is Dobrinka Chankova, Professor of Criminal Procedure Law at
South West University in Blagoevgrad, who told Forum 18 it covered
those pretending to be both state and other officials.
Despite his belief that the article can be applied against those
pretending to be non-governmental officials, Gruikin believes these
prosecutions violate the Constitution and Bulgaria's international
human rights obligations, which he says are higher than the Criminal
Code.
Once the cases against the two had been launched, they were then handed
to the local prosecutors in Sofia (against Inokenty) and Blagoevgrad
(against Gavriil). The charge sheet against Inokenty signed by
prosecutor Daskalova and dated 15 July 2005 - of which Forum 18 has
received a copy - details specific letters he signed in his role as
Deputy Chair of the Holy Synod and Metropolitan of Sofia between 2
January 2003 and 6 July 2004, which the prosecutor claimed was evidence
he was pretending to hold a role he did not hold.
The charge sheet against Metropolitan Gavriil, prepared by Prosecutor
Borsilav Kovachki from Blagoevgrad and dated 5 August 2005 (of which
Forum 18 has also received a copy), is similar.
Metropolitan Inokenty was due to be tried at Sofia District Court on 22
March, but the case was postponed as Inokenty was ill. The court set a
new date of 5 June to hear the case. Metropolitan Gavriil's case was
begun in Blagoevgrad District Court on 28 March, but was adjourned
until 19 May, Gruikin told Forum 18. He reported that the judge said he
wanted to acquaint himself with further documents of the Bulgarian
Orthodox Church and establish who is the real Metropolitan of Nevrokop.
However, in what might be seen as a concession, the prosecutors in both
cases have decided that they will continue the prosecutions under
Article 274 while bearing in mind Article 78a of the Criminal Code,
which in certain circumstances allows courts to hand down on those
found guilty not terms of imprisonment but administrative fines
instead. "They realised the cases are stupid," Gruikin told Forum 18.
"I believe the courts are now aiming to drag out the cases as long as
they can."
However, Metropolitan Inokenty has already been warned that he faces a
fine if found guilty of 150,000 leva (611,153 Norwegian kroner, 77,697
Euros or 92,496 US dollars).
For more background information see Forum 18's Bulgaria religious
freedom survey at
