The "Zelen Mladost" Association signals that the life of the former mayor of the "Mladost" District Desislava Ivancheva is in danger. Here is what the association says:
Dear media,
Dear citizens of Bulgaria,
Dear politicians who claim to fight for justice in our country,
We, the relatives, friends and supporters of Desislava Ivancheva, want to inform the general public, the entire society and all those who fight for the life and rights of citizens in Bulgaria, that we fear for the life and health of Desi Ivancheva in prison! Almost from the very beginning, Desi is subjected to physical and verbal abuse by a prisoner who fornicated and killed a 7-year-old child in a particularly cruel way and was sentenced to life in prison. From the show “No Man's Land” we learn that even her adoptive parents give her up and change her name. She has nothing to lose, she has been in prison for 26 years.
Since July 2024, Desi has acquired the right to CHANGE THE REGIME from strict to general by a decision made by a prison commission. However, for 7 months of the prison, they continue to keep her with women with serious crimes, provided that they themselves have made decisions to change her regime! We ask why? Is this another abuse of these fragile women? How do they expect her to “repair” in such an environment?
After publications in the yellow media at the beginning of Desi's stay in prison about her and other prisoners, the convict in question, who is a tall, large woman, begins to hold Desi responsible for them and harass her, it comes to physical aggression and guards intervene. After a complaint is filed by Desi, she receives a response from the prison administration, which we can briefly interpret as saying that she herself is to blame and that she provoked it. This is usually the response of scoundrels who rape their wives and children, but we do not know if this is a normal response for a correctional institution, you decide. And Desi, as a normal person, who lived among respectable, educated people, knows that with a conversation she can clear up the misunderstandings that have accumulated from external factors, she tries to talk to the problematic prisoner, but she becomes aggressive and starts a physical fight with Desi. After that, for 2 years now, Desi often receives verbal threats such as that they will send her to her deceased father, sweep the floor with her, crush her, and many other similar threats daily.
And against this background, a few months after the incident, the prison administration gathers Desi and the aggressive prisoner to work together in the kitchen, even putting them on the same shift. Ivancheva tries her best not to irritate the woman, to work quietly and meekly, to reduce the length of her sentence and to get out of there as soon as possible, but despite this, she is subjected to verbal aggression daily. But of course, she still finds an occasion to irritate the prisoner with a life sentence.
For the third month now, Desi Ivancheva has been sent to a hospital at the Lovech prison. And although the prison in Sliven claims that Desi has no serious health problems and that her life is not threatened by a life-sentenced prisoner, this stay comes to prove to us, her family and society, that either Desi is very sick and is being hidden from us or there is a real danger to her life from another prisoner. Whatever the reason, Desi must be released immediately to take care of her health and life!
We are now convinced that SOMEONE continues to harass and break Desi on a daily basis. The warden of the prison has long abdicated from his main function of ripping off convicted women! We ask him how exactly they will reform Desi, what they will teach her, why they are still keeping her there! How does a person who has been held for over 2 years among criminals and murderers with life sentences reform? How does a person reform, as if subjected to daily verbal and physical violence. How does a person reform by being shown that everything there is decided by force, not by conversation. Every attempt by Desi to seek and defend her rights is interpreted as “non-reparation”. How does a person improve when they are far from their child and their loved ones? How does a person improve when they stop taking their cancer medication? How does a person with a higher education improve when they are offered programs only for reading, writing, cutting, applique, making decorations, retelling children's books.
Gentlemen politicians, ministers, deputies, officials, it is time to get out of your comfortable offices, to get up from your blue parliamentary chairs, to see how the institution entrusted to you, the Sliven Prison, is correcting an innocent woman – by not treating her, by humiliating her, by placing her in an environment of daily mental and physical abuse, by clearly wanting to break her, by separating her from her infant child and her old and sick mother, by making her sicker.
We insist on the following:
1. Due to her changed regime from strict to general in July 2024, Desi should be transferred to an open-type dormitory, immediately upon completion of treatment!
2. The request for Parole should be granted and Desi should be released for many reasons:
to treat her microadenoma, which has grown, to treat her asthma and her teeth that are falling out;
to preserve her life, health and psyche, to stop the daily mental harassment, to change the environment to a more favorable one, different from the one in prison, which is criminogenic;
to take care of her young son, as a single and lonely parent, and to take care of her elderly, sick mother;
to work, reduce her sentence, be useful to herself, her family and society.
So far we have been silent and prayed that it would not get worse. But now, with this publicly announced problem, we hope for a reaction from the responsible institutions and individuals to prevent a negative scenario!
We ask the media, citizens and non-governmental organizations for support, to send inquiries by email, by post, by phone about the measures taken by the prison in Sliven, the State Penitentiary Service, the Ministry of Justice, deputies, the court in Sliven, the court in Lovech. We believe that your support and civil interest is the only means we have left to fight against the abdicated and repressive institutions in our homeland! And let us be active now, so that it is not too late later!
We believe that whoever dares to release Desi will become a national hero!
This is the response of the head of the Sliven prison, Sgt. Commissioner Yordan Danev:
Green Youth