The Bulgarian State used its entire repressive apparatus against me, froze all my assets, and destroyed my life, former financial consultant, Tencho Popov, declared.

In a Monday interview for the TV channel bTV, Popov informed investigator Petio Petrov was the one to demand a bribe and even racketeered him in order to get it.

Popov, former Defense Minister, Nikolay Tsonev and Sofia City Court judge, Petar Santirov, were arrested in April 2010, in a much advertised police operation that generated strong public controversy.

Former Defense Minister, Nikolay Tsonev, who was part of the previous, Socialist-led cabinet of the Three-Way Coalition from the quota of former Tsar Simeon Saxe-Coburg's party National Movement for Stability and Prosperity (NMSP), Santirov and Popov were charged with bribing investigator, Petyo Petrov, to forge evidence that would lead to a positive outcome for Tsonev of an investigation against him. The amount of the bribe was reported to have been EUR 60 000.

"I went to this meeting with him (Petrov) on his request, and had no idea what was the reason. Then he asked for a new meeting; this time threatening me. I do not wish to quote him, because he used foul language. He also pressured and threatened Tsonev. In his threats he stated two names, one of them of a Deputy Chief Prosecutor, and this scared me. If something is sent on behalf of a Deputy Chief Prosecutor to ask for money, what could I have done? Who would I go to to complain?" Popov said Monday.

According to the ex financial consultant, the entire case has been made up because the Interior needed to showcase the arrest of a judge, turning him into a defendant, adding judge Santirov did not know Tsonev, and he was needed to make the connection between the two.

"I was literally cooked. This case is the product of some very sick minds. They washed off their hands saying I resisted arrest. But the police have the tape. None of the policemen identified themselves, and I thought someone was attacking me physically," he said.

At the end of April, a video of what seems like police brutality was played in a Bulgarian court during the trial against Tsonev, Popov and Santirov.

Popov is shown in the video being beaten up by employees of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry with his head hit against a door frame. He is consequently seen lying on the ground with a masked police officer stepping on his hand. The action takes place at the notary public office of Popov's wife.

On Monday, Popov said he would not sue Bulgaria at the Human Rights Court in Strasburg because this would just be detrimental to Bulgarian taxpayers.

Popov's name also broke headlines recently over a scandalous report on the project to build a second Nuclear Power Plant, NPP in the Danube town of Belene in northern Bulgaria, sent to Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov.

The report raises alarm about the theft of hundreds of millions from equipment. – BGN 130 M, according to Popov, who said in the interview the money disappeared during the term of the previous Three-Way Coalition cabinet.

The former financial consultant explained he went to Borisov in person, soon after the latter took office, to inform him about the shady deals around Belene. The PM had been outraged and ordered the report to be delivered immediately to the Chief Prosecutor.

Popov says the truth about the NPP is way more chilling than what has been written in the media, and does not dismiss the entire case against him stems from the said report.

Tsonev's arrest was also filmed and broadcast by the Interior Ministry, spurring more public outrage of police brutality as masked police officers made him kneel to the ground while Deputy Sofia Prosecutor Roman Vasilev called him "a criminal". The Ethics Commission at Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) later sanctioned Vasilev, for his inappropriate behavior during the arrest.

The former Defense Minister is suing the Bulgarian state in Strasbourg, complaining of "humiliating treatment" by the police.

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