E/CN.4/2005/61/Add.1 Page 14 50. At the beginning of April 2004, Vasili A. Bilas and Nikolai M. Krinets requested the head of the territorial medical department of the Mozyr city executive committee, Mr. I.V. Baranov, to allow them to talk with patients in municipal hospital No. 1 and to convey their Easter greetings. Since the proposed contact between members of the religious community and patients would be of an individual nature, Mr. Baranov gave his consent to the Baptists’ visit to the medical institution. However, on 17 April 2004, Mr. Bilas, Mr. Krinets and Mr. Martynovich, with the participation of a choir and four musicians, held a mass religious event in the courtyard of municipal hospital No. 1 in Mozyr; the event included the singing of hymns, a sermon and the distribution of religious literature. The event had not been approved by the Mozyr city executive committee. Patients and visitors complained about the noise to the deputy chief surgeon, Mr. V.M. Khokh, who asked the organizers of the event to stop their celebration. Upon their refusal, Mr. Khokh was forced to appeal to law enforcement bodies for assistance. 51. A report was made by the authorities and then referred to the Mozyr city court for further action. Mr. Martynovich, Mr. Krinets and Mr. Bilas each received a fine equivalent to 20 times the minimum wage, or 380,000 roubles, which is the minimum fine for such an offence. Since the violators did not pay the fine within the legally established time limit, the court took measures for the compulsory enforcement of the decisions by deducting the fine from Mr. Martynovich’s salary and, since Mr. Krinets and Mr. Bilas were unemployed, confiscating their personal property. The prosecution of the aforementioned citizens for administrative offences and the procedure for recovering the fines are based on the provisions of Belarusian law on the conduct of public events and are not related to their right to profess their religion and beliefs either individually or together with others, including in public. Observations 52. The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the details provided in the replies of the Government. Bulgaria Communications and replies received 53. On 27 October 2004, the Special Rapporteur transmitted a communication to the Government of Bulgaria in relation to information received according to which, on 21 July 2004, the police had forcibly expelled members of the alternative Orthodox synod from some 250 churches that they had been using since the Orthodox Church split in the early 1990s. Different raids were reportedly carried out in Sofia, Plovdiv, Smolian, Bansko, Chepelare, and other places across the country after a prosecutor's warrant was issued. Concerns have been expressed that the police forces may have been using excessive force during these operations. Indeed, reports indicated that more than 10 priests and more than 100 people were ill-treated in churches in Sofia alone. It was further reported that Fr. Khristo Piserov, Fr. Kamen Barakov and Bishop Gevrasy of St. Paraskeva Church in Sofia as well as the secretary of the church, Milena Shtereva, were detained without any grounds following these interventions.