Document #1181738
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
According to an information package on the
Church of the Word of Life in Bulgaria sent to the Research
Directorate by a Brussels-based organization called Human Rights
Without Frontiers, the Word of Life Biblical Foundation was
registered as a non-profit organization by the Sofia City Court.
However, in September 1993 the City Court decision was declared
inadmissible by the City Prosecutor's office and on 1 March 1994,
the Supreme Court of Bulgaria cancelled the registration.
According to Country Reports
1997,
The government requirement that groups whose activities have a religious element register with the Council of Ministers remained an obstacle to the activity of some religious groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Word of Life, the Unification Church, and Baha'is, which have been denied registration (1998).
Country Reports 1997 also states
that in April and May 1997, the police "broke up Word of Life
religious gatherings, and in May customs officials at Sofia Airport
confiscated videotapes belonging to the same religious group."
Additional information on the current
treatment of members of the Church of the Word of Life by the
Bulgarian authorities and the population in general, and on
recourses available to them could not be found among the sources
consulted by the Research Directorate.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the
list of sources consulted in researching this Information
Request.
References
Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 1997. 1998. United States Department of State.
Washington, DC : Government Printing Office. [Internet], http://www.state.gov.[Accessed : 5
February 1998. 1996]
Human Rights Without Frontiers,
Brussels. Information package sent on 9 February 1998 to the
Research Directorate.
Additional Sources Consulted
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS) Reports. Daily.
Online searches for news articles
(NEXIS).
Three oral sources could not provide the
requested information within the established deadline.
A letter sent to the Research Directorate
on 9 January 1998 by a representative of the Bulgarian Helsinki
Committee in Sofia states:
There have been no changes recently in the
legislation with respect to desertion from the army. Last
amendments have been as of 1982 and 1986. All the relevant
provisions are laid down in the Penal Code, Sections 380-392. These
provisions describe different crimes, that can be committed by
military personnel. One of the Sub-Chapters is entitled "Defection
from Military Service" and describes different circumstances of
desertion, providing for different punishments. These are different
number of years imprisonment, ranging up to 8 years imprisonment. A
career army officer risks between one and eight years imprisonment
if he has fled from the army to another country.
For a copy of articles 380-388 of the
Bulgarian penal code, please consult Response to Information
Request BGR8154 of 19 March 1991.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the
list of additional sources consulted in researching this
Information Request.
Reference
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Sofia. 9
January 1998. Letter sent to the Research Directorate by a
representative.