Bulgarian PM Vows Penalties over Latest Police Brutality

Crime | January 23, 2012, Monday // 10:36
Bulgarian PM Vows Penalties over Latest Police Brutality: Bulgarian PM Vows Penalties over Latest Police Brutality Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, says one isolated case of police brutality tarnishes the thousand good things the police and the prosecution are doing. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, apologized and promised dismissals at the Interior Ministry over the scandal with the detention and raid of a home of a family in a Sofia suburb.

Over the weekend, Malina and Petar Nachkovi complained of police brutality and reported they have been severely beaten and with no sound motivation detained by police, who after that went on to violently break in and search their home.

"I will demand resignations," Borisov declared after calling the hosts of the morning political talk show of the largest private TV channel bTV, while they were having a conversation with the family in question in the studio.

The PM apologized over the violence during the operation saying "it would have been quite normal for two policemen to go serve the papers to the woman," and that "this circus was unnecessary."

"I regret this because one such case tarnishes the thousand good things the police and the prosecution are doing," he further stated, adding he had scheduled a meeting Monday morning with Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, over the incident.

The Nachkovi family explained that they have been detained Saturday in the Sofia "Iliyantsi" district by 30 uniform employees of the Main Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime, GDBOP. They pushed and kicked the husband, who later obtained a medical report documenting his injuries. After that, the couple had been taken in two separate cars to their home in Mirovyane, where the policemen busted the door open and took out on the street their younger daughter in underwear.

Police deny claims by Malina, who said that they brought her husband to the ground, hitting him and hitting her, and held her at gunpoint, using rude words.

The operation was conducted on information that the couple, who owns a small shop, have been storing and distributing goods without excise labels. During the search of their home, however, the policemen only found five packs of cigarettes with no excise tax band on them.

After the search, the husband and wife were placed under arrest, upon which they contacted lawyer Marin Markovski, who managed to have them released.

According to Markovski, the police had no information of a crime committed by the Nachkovi, and will not file charges against them.

It turned out that Malina and Petar are the parents of Ralitsa Nachkova, their older daughter and creator of Facebook group "I Shall Not Vote for Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov and the GERB Party."

Borisov and the Head of the Sofia Police directorate fully dismissed any connection between the arrest and the Facebook group, saying the bust was completely arbitrary.

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Tags: Boyko Borisov, police, Facebook, GERB, arrested, beaten, detained, cigarettes, organized crime, lawyer, crime, Nachkovi, police brutality

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