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former Bulgarian Interior Minister Rumen Petkov
The US visa of controversial former Bulgarian Interior Minister Rumen Petkov has been annulled due to information that he has been involved in some sort of criminal activity.
This has been announced by Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov in a written answer to an inquiry by oppositional leftist Bulgarian Socialist Party MP Angel Naydenov. Currently, Rumen Petkov is an MP from the same formation.
A court verdict is not a necessary provision for a visa annulment, it has been made clear by Minister Maldenov's answer. He has received the information about the reasons behind Petkov's canceled visa after he exchanged diplomatic notes with the US.
On November 24 2010, the US Embassy in Sofia confirmed the media information that Rumen Petkov has been strapped of his non-immigrant visa of former Bulgarian Interior Minister based on information about a criminal investigation of him. US Ambassador James Warlick stated that Petkov has been informed on the reasons behind the annulment, braking the news that there is an ongoing criminal investigation against him.
Subsequently, however, Petkov called Warlick a liar and stated he had no idea of a criminal investigation against him whatsoever.
In December, Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev has stated, counter to Ambassador James Warlick's prior claims, that there is no investigation underway against the ex-Minister of Interior.
Rumen Petkov resigned from his post as Interior Minister on April 13, 2008 after a series of scandals sparked allegations of corruption and mafia connections in his department.
A wire-tap information leak from his ministry had revealed that he had had a meeting in 2006 with Plamen Galev and Angel Hristov, a pair of suspected mafia bosses and benefactors at the small and impoverished town of Dupnitsa.
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