Feb 2, 2024. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
The date marks a decision by a Bulgarian communist “People’s Court” on 1st of February, 1945 to sentence to death, without the right to appeal three Regents of the then King of Bulgaria, Simeon II - king's uncle Prince Kiril, prime minister Bogdan Filov, and general Nikola Mihov; 67 MPs and 22
cabinet ministers. Secretaries to the Palace, newspaper publishers and generals were also sentenced to death. The executions were carried out the same night near the Sofia cemetery.
The People’s Court - an ad hoc tribunal - was set up months after the communist coup in Bulgaria in 1944. It was established outside the operations of the constitutional frame of law, in contravention of the then effective Turnovo constitution, to be used as an instrument of the communist terror. Overall, the People’s Court tried 135 cases with 11,122 accused.
A total of 9,155 people were sentenced. A total of 2,730 people from Bulgaria’s elite were killed over a period of several months.1,305 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
No one was
allowed to talk about this until the fall of totalitarianism in 1989.
The day of
remembrance and respect to the victims of the communist regime is celebrated on
1st of February at the proposal of the presidents of Bulgaria Zhelyu Zhelev
(1990-1997) and Petar Stoyanov (1997-2002).
(Bulgarian media)
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