Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has come under opposition fire over a growing number of complaints of police brutality. Photo by BGNES
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has stepped up calls for the resignation of Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, citing yet another example of police brutality.
The socialists announced late on Tuesday that an 18-year boy had been beaten with a stun baton by a plainclothes policeman at the regional police department in the southwestern village of Skravena.
BSP said that the boy had been beaten on January 11, 2012, when the local police detained several people for painting swastikas over houses.
The socialists presented a medical expert report stating that Petar Ivanov had been beaten and had sustained numerous burns on the neck, the two hands and the feet.
Left-wing MP Mihail Mihov argued that youths had got beaten up with stun batons at the police department in Skravena.
Regarding the case with Petar Ivanov, he said that the policemen and the family of the victim had agreed that the accident would not be made public.
The socialists said that the mother of the 18-year-old boy had come to BSP's headquarters to complain and had brought the medical documents.
"I would like to remind Minister Tsvetanov that everyone, defendants including, have rights. Extracting confessions through fighting and violence by causing pain is a crime," BSP leader Sergey Stanishev stated.
BSP yet again urged Interior Minister Tsvetanov to step down as the one being politically responsible for the case of police brutality.
The left-wing formation said that it may table a no-confidence motion against the cabinet of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, over the growing number of cases of police brutality.