740.00116 EW/12–844: Telegram
The American Representative in Bulgaria (Barnes) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 10—11:20 a.m.]
14. Considerable preparatory propaganda is being carried on with regard to the forthcoming trials of the members of pro-Nazi governments. The following information on these trials was provided by Naiden Mkolov, lawyer and veteran Communist leader, now President [Page 501] of the Court of Cassation. The people’s courts, of which there will be several, will each be composed of 13 members. Of these, four will be career judges appointed by the Minister of Justice, and the remaining nine will represent the four parties comprising the Fatherland Front. The two main groups to be tried will be the 30 Cabinet members who have served since 1941 and some 140 national representatives who held office during the same period. The trials of the two groups will probably proceed simultaneously. Numerous other persons suspected of being collaborators will be tried separately. Nikolov pointed out that the defendants will be tried for complicity in one or more of three acts now regarded as treasonable: The adherence of Bulgaria to the Tripartite Pact,71 the declaration of war on the United States and Great Britain and anti-Soviet propaganda and activity in violation of Bulgarian neutrality. Nikolov added that capital punishment will probably be employed only in a few instances and that the majority of sentences would be for life imprisonment or shorter prison terms. The trials will be held in public and will commence before the end of the month.
As regards the members of the shortlived Muraviev72 Cabinet, most of whom are under house arrest, Nikolov indicated that all but Virgil Dimov would probably be found innocent. Dimov, who is now in prison, may well receive a prison sentence since he sanctioned the execution of a number of anti-Nazis during his brief tenure as Minister of Interior.
Repeated to Moscow and Caserta.
- Pact of alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan, signed at Berlin, September 27, 1940; for text, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cciv, p. 386, or Department of State, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, series D. vol. xi, p. 204. For correspondence regarding this treaty, see Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. i, pp. 651–672, passim.↩
- Konstantin Muraiev, Bulgarian Prime Minister, September 2–9, 1944.↩