Keston also reports that Bulgarian Orthodox activist preest Fr. Blagoy Topuliev was arrested on January 11 together with other members of the unofficial Independent Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Bulgaria. He was “subsequently attacked in a bitter article in the official Communist party daily Rabotnichesko Dele (Workers’ Cause).”

      Another Bulgarian Orthodox, layman Georgi Todorov Minchev (42) is reported to have been arrested in his apartment on March 1 and assigned to the Veliko Turnovo Psychiatric Institution. He was earlier subjected to compulsory psychiatric treatment after he had made proposals for reforming the Bulgarian economy. Since 1982 Minchev, who is married with two children, has made repeated applications to emigrate to the US in order to be able to practice hi, faith freely and without harassment.

(KNS 3/16/89)