Political Activity
From 9 September 1944 to 26 August 1945 he was a minister without portfolio in the first government of the FF. From January 1945 he became a leader of the anti-communist United opposition. From 26 November 1946 he was an MP in the 6th Great National Assembly.
His struggle to preserve parliamentary democracy was viewed by the communists as a form of counter-revolutionary activity. His parliamentary immunity was lifted on 5 June 1947 and he was arrested in the Parliament building itself. After a show trial in which the defence was denied the rights to legal representation or to present evidence, he was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to death on 16 August that year. Though he protested his innocence during his staged group trial with 4 other 'co-conspirators,' and despite the protests of Western nations, Nikola Petkov was hanged on 23 September 1947 and buried in an unknown grave. The Bulgarian secret police arranged for a false confession to be publicly printed after Petkov's death, but it was so obviously faked that the move quickly became an embarrassment and ceased to be mentioned by the authorities. Petkov had been denied a Christian burial or last rites, despite being one of Bulgaria's few genuinely religious public figures. He was posthumously rehabilitated on 15 January 1990.
Read more about this topic: Nikola Petkov
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