Bulgarian PM, AmCham Lunch Unperturbed by Mobster's Assassination Attempt

Business | January 29, 2013, Tuesday| 1153 views

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Bulgaria: Bulgarian PM, AmCham Lunch Unperturbed by Mobster's Assassination Attempt

The Sofia downtown was swarming with police Tuesday noon after earlier an attempt was made to kill mobster Zlatko Baretata, while PM Borisov was scheduled to meet with AmCham nearby. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov arrived Tuesday noon for a luncheon with the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria (AmCham) in downtown Sofia even though an attempt to assassinate an emblematic mobster was made just meters away from the meeting venue a little earlier.

Borisov showed up for his annual lunch meeting with AmCham at the Sheraton Hotel Balkan in downtown Sofia at about 12:30 EET on Tuesday, as the area was swarming with police after an assassination attempt that left key mafia boss Zlatomir Ivanov, aka Zlatko Baretata (The Beret), alive but with four gunshot wounds in front of the Central Courthouse a few dozen meters away from the luncheon venue.

US Ambassador to Bulgaria Marcie Ries opened Borisov's luncheon with AmCham.

Zlatomir Ivanov, aka Baretata, and one of his bodyguards were shot and wounded at about 9:30 am on Tuesday but in addition to the Borisov-AmCham meeting the assassination attempt failed to cancel any of the key trial hearings scheduled in the Central Courthouse, including a hearing of Otkay Enimehmedov, the 25-year-old ethnic Turkish Bulgarian who tried to assassinate ethnic Turkish leader Ahmed Dogan, leader of the DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) party, at a party conference on January 19, 2013.

Later, during his speech to the forum, Borisov commented brief on Baretata's assassination attempt by saying that the spot before the Central Courthouse in Sofia was an "easy" one for shooting.