AI is concerned about growing police violence in Bulgaria. Recent reports suggest that the special police forces (“red berets”) have used unwarranted and unjustified force. During an operation on 2 March 1995 against organized crime in the “La Skala” cocktail bar in Sofia, police and special forces allegedly ill-treated severely a number of people, of whom three later needed emergency hospital treatment. Those beaten included an elderly man in a wheelchair.
