By Vesselin Zhelev

waz.euobserver.com

A Bulgarian court's decision to substantially lower the charges against the main suspect in a case involving the mafia has led to the unravelling of a landmark investigation into organised crime in the country.

Alexei Petrov, a former elite policeman-turned-controversial-businessman, has been moved from jail to house arrest but he has accused the authorities of persecuting him to destroy proof that he helped fund Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov's political party.

Mr Petrov had been in custody for nine months pending a trial on charges of heading an underworld network implicated in prostitution, drugs, money laundering, extortion rackets and embezzlement. Last year, he was exposed as a secret agent of Bulgaria's main anti-mafia body, the State National Security Agency.

Hard-line interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov sent a heavily armed anti-terrorist unit to arrest Mr Petrov in his Sofia home in February. Police videotaped Mr Petrov lying on the kitchen floor wearing pyjamas with submachine guns pointed to his head.

The interior ministry spread the clip on the internet and the media readily used it. The operation was dubbed 'Octopus' alluding to a TV series about the Italian mafia and Mr Petrov was called the "octopus' head."

Months later, a judge ruled that police had based their case on weak evidence and struck off the main charges against Mr Petrov, making it possible to release him from jail. He is no longer being prosecuted for organised crime but for minor offences including the attempted intimidation of a businessman some years ago.

On his release, Mr Petrov told media that Mr Borisov and Mr Tsvetanov were persecuting him in order to retrieve and destroy compromising evidence he had about the financing of their party, GERB.

Mr Petrov said that as chair of a local business association in 2006, he helped raise ?1 million from its members as a bank guarantee in a deal with a Belgian company to fit the Sofia metro system with surveillance cameras. He said that Mr Borisov, then mayor of the capital, had asked him to do this.

The Belgian deal was never finalised and eventually the city hired a local contractor. Despite this, according to Mr Petrov, money mysteriously disappeared from the bank account where it was kept. Mr Borisov and Mr Tsvetanov dismissed his allegations as false but Mr Petrov indicated he could present documents to prove them.

The case also re-ignited an old row between Mr Tsvetanov and the judiciary, which he has repeatedly accused of corruption and mob ties.

"Judges are put to tremendous temptations," he said, referring to Mr Petrov's release. "When money rustles, things change in an opposite direction."

Vesselin Penghezov, chairman of the Sofia Court of Appeal, replied with an angry declaration urging Mr Tsvetanov to prove his bribery allegations or to resign.

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