Call for the Director of Sofia Prison Peter Krestev to be dismissed (again)

The disgraced Director Peter Krestev after being returned by the interim government in April 2017 started almost immediately with repressive measures as he had prisoners who went to Church and Bible meetings reported for disciplinary violations. Immediately after his return a heroin drug dealing gag took over the prison with the protection of prison staff/guards. This heroin dealing gang in July raped another prisoner in the yard. The next day prisoners rebelled against the prison sponsored rape gang and another group attacked the first group as the prison refused to take action against the perpetrators of the public rape. After that the Director drastically reduced the time for prisoners outside from 2.5 hours to 1 hour which is the minimum allowed by law. More recently the Director of Sofia Prison has stopped courtyard football that prisoners have always played for many years which resulted in immediate mass petitions sent to the Ministry of Justice who although agreed with the prisoners verbally have taken absolutely no action against the Director Peter Krestev.

The Director Peter Krestev is also responsible for the 3 surrounding prisons in Sofia and so his policies have affected prisoners outside of Sofia Prison in other prisons such as Kremakovski Prison and Kazichene Prison and now other draconian measures established by the Director Peter Krestev are being implemented across all prison institutions in Sofia and as such there has been an acute rise in corruption as prison staff try to sabotage the law reforms brought in by the government in February.

With the return of Peter Krestev as Director we have had:
•Increased violence
•Increased sexual assault
•Decreased time in the exercise yard
•Decreased and often full stopping of sport time to play football
•Increased heroin trade
•Automatic negative reports from the Director with regards to early release
•Increased arbitrary and illegal punishments
•Abuse of power
•Decrease of rewards for good behaviour such as 4hour visits

Violations and crimes that occurred when Peter Krestev has been Director of Sofia Central Prison:

• The day after the public rape a group of prisoners attacked the group that had committed the rape the day before resulting in a mass fight in the exercise yard, this was only possible as the rapists are protected by the prison administration otherwise they should be have been isolated and punished, failing this prisoners took matters into their own hands

• July 2017 – Prisoner for the first time in Sofia Prison history was publicly raped with a chilli pepper in the central exercise yard by a drug gang that is protected by the prison administration

• October 31st 2014 – 2 prisoners were handcuffed and tortured at the 3rd post; one prisoner had to be carried to hospital

• June 2014 – 7 prisoners beaten in 10th group, 40 guards ran into 11th cell while everyone was sleeping and summarily beat everyone in their beds

• 2014 – Director for Labour in Sofia Central Prison was arrested for trafficking contraband and subsequently investigated for giving reductions off the sentences of prisoners for money which could only have occurred with the entire prison administration knowing

• April 30th 2014 – 2 prisoners escaped, they both escaped from their work places which were not guarded, at least one of the prisoners bribed the prison administration so as to be given the work where he would have access to a perimeter wall of the prison. Even though the 2 prisoners who escaped never should have been given work where it was so easy to escape, instead of the Director being fired a guard was fired

• February 27th 2014 – Sued in court for refusal to supply prisoner with the information of his sentence served

• January 2014 – Prisoner beaten badly by 10 guards over suspicion that he had smoked marijuana, Svilen Svetanov later ordered that the prisoner was guilty and had him put into long term punishment isolation on the 18.02.2014

• September 2013 – 7 prisoners beaten in 10th group in a mass beating whereby 2 shifts of guards, about 40, brought everyone out into the corridor, made the prisoners put their hands against the wall and then summarily beat everyone, this happened twice in one day

• October 17th 2013 – mass beating of 11 prisoners in Sofia Central Prison, the 11 prisoners were taken into the corridor, made to put their hands up against the wall and were beaten with batons, fists, boots and even metal poles

• August 22nd 2013 – Director Krestev orders staff to return the illegally removed equipment to the computer room so as to trick the Inspectors from the Ministry of Finance. After the inspection by the Ministry of Finance the equipment was again removed. The Ministry of Finance understood this and sent their findings to the Ministry of Interior as covering up facts during an official inspection is a crime thus instigating a criminal proceeding against the staff of Sofia Central Prison.

• April 23rd 2013 – Director Krestev orders prison staff to illegally remove equipment from the European funded computer room

• March 13th 2013 – Guard beat a prisoner in 13th group

• January 21st 2013 – Prevented a prisoner from continuing his education, the vice - Minister of Justice and Sofia Administrative Court both overturned the illegal order of the Director Peter Krestev

• January 2013 – Pekov beaten by 10 guards and his shoulder was dislocated, Mohamad begged the guards to stop beating Pekov as his shoulder was dislocated and was himself beaten by the same 10 guards

• 2012 – Massive bonuses awarded to Peter Krestev from the Prison fund, this money is supposed to be for the maintenance of prisons and modernization and Peter Krestev did not undertake any improvements of Sofia Central Prison, yet despite this he awarded himself with massive bonuses of tax payer money

• October 28th 2012 – found half a kilo of drugs in Sofia Prison and also bags of alcohol from outside the prison and a bag of about 20 mobile phones. Also found was food pilfered from the prison stores that was being smuggled out of the prison by the guards

• July 22nd 2012 – prisoner was tortured to find information on contraband

• June 13th 2012 – Punished prisoner for writing a complaint against corrupt staff, the punishment was subsequently found to be a violation of human rights in the ECHR and the taxpayers were forced to pay for Peter Krestev’s illegal activities

• June 27th 2012 – visitor was robbed by prison guards

• June 8th 2012 – Guard kicks a prisoner in the back

• November 2011 – Case of mass and systematic rapes in 8th group Sofia Prison and subsequent cover up by Inspector Atanasova