The legal grounds a person to be detained in Republic of Bulgaria are listed in the Ministry of Interior Act. These grounds are as follows:

1. If there are data that the person has committed a crime.

2. Who, following due warning, consciously deters the police organ from meeting organ’s obligation on duty.

3. Who shows serious psychic deviations and by his/her behavior violates the public order or puts to obvious danger his/her life or the life of other persons.

4. A juvenile breaker who has left his/her home, guardian, trustee or specialized institution, in which such minor has been accommodated.

5. If it is impossible to establish the person’s identity in the cases and manners established in the Ministry of Interior Act.

6. Who deviated from serving his/her term of punishment “detention under custody” or in places, where the person has been detained as an accused, in compliance with a police or judicial organ’s institution.

7. The person is declared for international search on the request of another state in connection with person’s extradition or in compliance with European order of arrest.

8. In other cases provided by law.

Practically someone can be kept in detention without charges being pressed against him/her in the cases, listed in points 1 to 5, because usually in the cases indicated in points 6 and 7, the particular individual already has charges pressed against him/her.

The maximum period of time someone can be kept in detention without charges being pressed against him/her is indicated in the Ministry of Interior Act – a person detained under the conditions of the law, shall not be deprived of other rights except for the right of free movement. The term of detention in these cases shall not exceed 24 hours.

In order to take a detainee to a place of detention, the police organs must issue written order. The police organs are obliged to immediately set free a person, if the reasons for the detention dropped off.

In the cases under points 1 to 8, the person may be accommodated in special premises and against such person measures for personal security may be taken, if the person’s behavior and the purpose of detention require so. If the detained person has no command of Bulgarian, he/she shall be directly informed about the reasons of his/her detention in a language understandable for him/her. The detained person may appeal to the court the legality of the detention. The court is obligated to deliver judgment to such appeal immediately. Since the moment of detention the detained person has the right to an attorney. In case of detention the relevant organ is obliged to immediately notify a person, indicated by the detainee. If for example a certain individual is a citizen of UK and is detained in Republic of Bulgaria, this person may indicate a clerk or an officer from the British Embassy.

In case of detention, a detainee, who is a foreign citizen, should not sign statements or declarations he/she does not understand or documents, which are written in foreign language.

The straight forward answer to the title questions is as follows: the term of detention without charges being pressed against the detained person should not exceed 24 hours. Foreign citizen should never sign declarations or statements before having spoken to an attorney, especially if these documents are written in a foreign language.

However, Bulgarian authorities quite often elude the rule of 24 hour detention. This is achieved as the police and prosecution authorities base their actions on article 64, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This regulation provides that the prosecutor shall immediately ensure for the accused party to appear before court and, if needed, he/she may rule the detention of the accused party for up to 72 hours until the latter is brought before court. This regulation regards the case, in which charges have already been pressed, but the measure of remand in custody in pre – trail proceedings has not been taken yet. Nevertheless, in fact detention up to 72 hours is applied before there are any charges pressed, in order the prosecution to prepare these charges in a manner well sustained for court. If Court denies the request of the prosecutor for taking measure of remand in custody in pre – trial proceedings, then the practical result is that detention may last up to 72 hours.