Sofia echo 16/08/2009

Fines levied for failing to present ID documents to police when demanded could increase to 300 leva, Oleg Bankin, head of Security Police told Bulgarian news agency BTA on August 16 2009.

Bankin said every police officer had the right to ask people for their ID documents. If people fail to present these, they could be fined and taken to the nearest police station for further questioning, where they could be asked to provide fingerprints.

A common excuse offered people who did not have their ID documents on them was a fear of pickpockets. This, however, would no longer be accepted as an excuse, Bankin said.

An international passport or driver's licence was a valid substitute for the ID document, known in Bulgarian as Lichna Karta, Bankin said.

The fine for losing or destroying one's documents was up to 150 leva, he said. Bankin asked people not to invent stories of robbery to police in order to avoid the fine when, in reality, they had lost their documents.

Hi Ashley,I never knew that law existed,That means even going out to eat at night you stand the chance of a hefty fine. When I first started travelling to Bulgaria we were supposed to keep all our receipts of where we had stayed and I never ever was asked for them when leaving the country.
That,s a crazy law thank God I was never stopped when going to work or out at night as I would never carry anything on me only a small amount of money.I think it is a habit from living in the states in case of been mugged.

I can sort of speak from experience, I was stopped on the road from Slivan to Yambol by the police for so called speeding :Headbang:I normally do carry all my documents with me, but on this occasion I had a different jacket on and forgot to transfer all the contents from the other one, anyway when asked for my docs I told them that they were all at home inc my passport so both officers had a chin-wag took all my details and gave me a sheet of paper telling me to take my car docs to Silvan police station within 2 days and my passport to Yambol passport office in 3 weeks, I did go to Slivan and after trying to get in to the station for almost an hour I was taken all round the building to different Dept's till someone was able to speak English this tool at least another hour and all they did was to photo copy my docs, I was unable to present my passport as I was returning to the UK within a few days. I left instructions with my neighbour saying if the police turn up can he let me know? that was quite a while back now and to date I still haven't had anymore contact with the police or the passport office, so I think I was extremely lucky

They were looking money for coffee [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The first time 2008 I built up courage to take the car out of the village low and behold I got stopped by the police - I rolled my window down and said is there a problem - he said ' English' I say yes' he said [size=150:129jv489]go!!

Next time 2009 we were stopped was not so lucky we had the pajero now registered in BG plates. It appears Dougie was doing 62mile in a 60 mile region had to pay 31lev at the post office across the road.

Oddy

My story is same as Nets.

Was stopped on the road from Yambol to Kotel ... changed my jacket and had bugger all documents with me.

I refused to pay the bribe, so they gave me a breathaliser test (yeah right 11.30 in the morning, fat chance), no problem.

They then sat me in the Police Car for half an hour and filled out a long document about my 'offences' and was told to report to Yambol Police Station, submit my documents and pay a fine.

I scanned the document, sent it to our lawyers and she had it all cancelled as they hadn't provided an official translator!

Advice (from our lawyers) is ... if you have to sign some kind of declaration due to a traffic offence, write on the bottom of the form "
I do not understand this form, I have not been provided with an official translator so therefore I do not know what I'm supposed to do"
.

She tells me that 99% of the time, this will avoid any fines! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Your right Chris this is where this comes in

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Luxembourg, 7 October 2010
14414/10
PRESSE 259

Council adopts EU wide rights to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings

The Council adopted today EU wide rules on the rights to interpretation and translation in
criminal proceedings (PE-CONS 27/10 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... 7.en10.pdf). An agreement has been reached with the European Parliament in first reading. Member states will now have to transpose the directive into national law.

The directive is based on an initiative taken by 13 Member States (Belgium, Germany,
Estonia, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Finland and Sweden).
Enhanced rights - interpretation and translation.

The directive will substantially enhance the rights for suspected and accused persons. They will in particular have the following rights:

Right to interpretation

A suspected or accused person who does not understand or speak the
language of the criminal proceedings concerned will be provided without
delay with interpretation during criminal proceedings before investigative
and judicial authorities, including during police questioning, during all court
hearings and during any necessary interim hearings.

Where necessary for the purpose of ensuring the fairness of the proceedings,
interpretation will also be available for communication between the
suspected or accused person and his legal counsel in direct connection with
any questioning or hearing during the proceedings or with the lodging of an
appeal or other procedural applications, such as for bail.

14414/10

Right to translation
A suspected or accused person who does not understand the language of the
criminal proceedings concerned is provided with written translation of all
documents which are essential to ensure that he is able to exercise the right
to defend himself and to safeguard the fairness of the proceedings.

Essential documents include decisions depriving a person of his liberty, the
charge/indictment and any judgment. The competent authorities shall decide
in any given case whether any other document is essential. The suspected or
accused person or his legal counsel may submit a reasoned request to this
effect.

Passages of essential documents which are not relevant for the suspected or
accused person to have knowledge of the case against him do not have to be
translated.

As an exception to the general rules, an oral translation or an oral summary
of essential documents may be provided instead of a written translation, on
condition that such oral translation or oral summary does not affect the
fairness of the proceedings.

The directive also contains provisions on quality of interpretation and translation
and on training of judges, prosecutors and judicial staff.
European Convention on Human Rights.

The directive aims at achieving a more consistent implementation of the rights and
guarantees set out in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and to
provide a further development within the European Union of the minimum standards set
out in this Convention and in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Part of a wider package.

The directive is the first concrete measure of the "
Roadmap"
for strengthening procedural
rights of suspected and accused persons in criminal proceedings, which was adopted by the

Council in November 2009

The Council unanimously agreed on this wider package of
legislative and non-legislative initiatives in October 2009 (14552/1/09).

I have to say that the forum is great,it brings the collective knowledge and experience of all into the public domain

:Thank you:Jo, we all appreciate that

Oddy