BULGARIA: Truth on the Gallows

The floodlights in the Sofia courtroom came up full force, concentrating on the miserable defendant in the dock. The court asked Traicho Kostov, once Bulgaria’s No. 2 Communist, if he wished to make a final statement. Earlier in the trial Kostov had refused to play his assigned role, had denied being guilty of espionage and treason against Bulgaria (TIME, Dec. 19). This was his last chance to redeem himself—and he rejected it. “I must say once again,” he began, “that I was never a police agent, never an imperialist spy . . .”

Hisses and catcalls from the Communist claque in the spectators’ gallery drowned out the rest of Kostov’s statement. When the din had subsided, Kostov’s lawyer apologized for “defending” him, and called for the maximum penalty. A lawyer, he said, should not try to help a guilty client: “In a Socialist state there is no division of duty between the judge, prosecutor and defense counsel.” Next day the court found Kostov guilty of treason and sentenced him to the gallows; his ten codefendants, all of whom had pliantly “confessed” and testified against Kostov, got off with life terms or less.

Forty-eight hours later the government proudly announced to the world that Kostov had been hanged. It also made an extraordinary claim which it did not document; before the end, said the Ministry of Justice, Kostov had made a groveling plea for mercy and a “full confession.” The late Traicho Kostov, who was in no position to deny the tale, was quoted as explaining that his defiant attitude in court had been due to “nervous agitation and the unhealthy ambition of an intellectual . . . The sentence is absolutely just and . . . necessary in the struggle against the Anglo-American imperialists.” Bulgaria’s people were not told of Kostov’s execution, nor did they hear of his alleged message from the gallows, until just before the start of their national elections last Sunday. The news apparently put the voters into the proper frame of mind. For the Red Fatherland Front slate (there was no other slate), 4,500,000, or almost 100%, voted a Russian da.