Bulgaria's new Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has surprisingly sided with the five anti-mafia policemen, who were sentenced to 82 years in jail for allegedly killing 38-year-old Angel Dimitrov, saying they did not act deliberately.

"It was not their aim to kill him," Tsvetanov said on Monday as he met relatives of the sentenced in the town of Blagoevgrad.

Meanwhile hundreds of policemen from the town staged a peaceful rally against the heavy sentences that a court delivered to five of their former colleagues for the alleged murder.

A Bulgarian court upheld earlier in the week the verdict of five anti-mafia policemen, who were sentenced to 82 years in jail for allegedly killing 38-year-old Angel Dimitrov in the city of Blagoevgrad four years ago.

Major Miroslav Pissov was sentenced to 18 years behind bars, while the other four - captain Ivo Ivanov, chief-lieutenant Boris Mehandzhijski, and sergeants Georgi Kalinkov and Yanko Grahovski - to 16 years in jail.

Angel Dimitrov AKA Chorata, was allegedly killed in November of 2005 by the Blagoevgrad police during a law enforcement operation entitled "Respect."

Dimitrov's death was first pegged as a heart attack but expertise showed that he had passed away due to blows to the head.

Dimitrov aka Chorata was a close ally of the alleged mobster Vassil Gorchev, who was publicly executed in January of 2005.

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