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Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was unperturbed at his annual luncheon with AmCham in downtown Sofia despite a gangland shooting nearby earlier on Tuesday. Photo by BGNES
The spot before the Central Courthouse in Bulgaria's capital is an "easy" one for shooting, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov told AmCham during his annual luncheon with US investors in downtown Sofia shortly after a failed assassination attempt against emblematic mobster Zlatomir Ivanov, aka Zlatko Baretata (The Beret).
"Zlatko Baretata already has been sentenced by the first-instance court. I have always claimed that persons who have been sentenced at first instance will be much healthier if they stay in custody," Borisov told the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria, reiterating his comments from the time when he was Bulgaria's Chief Interior Ministry Secretary in 2001-2005 when gangland murders peaked in the country.
"This is a very easy spot for shooting," the PM stressed referring to the spot in front of the Central Courthouse in Sofia, where Zlatomir Ivanov was shot at, and which is located just a few dozen meters away from the Sofia Sheraton Hotel Balkan, the meeting venue for Borisov's luncheon with AmCham.
He added that anybody who has a sentence from a first-instance court should be kept in custody or in a house arrest, and that in the latter case the defendant can be brought in under police protection through the back year of the Courthouse.
"Let's hope that some day we will have progress in the part of the legislation – so that persons with a sentence by a first instance court will be kept in custody," Borisov concluded his brief remark on the Baretata shooting in his speech to AmCham, after refusing to comment on the attack when entering the meeting venue.
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.
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.
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