Send to Kindle
Former Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, is being questioned by prosecutors in connection with charges pressed against Bulgarian police's anti-organized crime unit head. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria's former Interior Minister in the GERB Cabinet, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, has been summoned for questioning Tuesday morning by the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office.
The interrogation comes in connection with the charges pressed against Bulgarian police's anti-organized crime unit head, Stanimir Florov.
On Friday, Florov was charged with large-scale bribery by the country's prosecuting authority.
The charges stemmed from reports that the Prosecutor's Office and a number of media have received leaked copies of what is claimed to be classified police documents implicating Florov in facilitating drug trafficking.
The alleged documents have been identified as records of police investigations on Florov's suspected activities facilitating international drug trafficking in Bulgaria in the late 1990s and the 2000s.
In particular, the documents mentioned that Florov had been paid to provide cover up for Middle East drug dealers and for the illegal drug manufacturing in the so-called "Opitsvet" affair in 1997.
Currently Head of the Bulgarian police's Chief Directorate for Fight against Organized Crime (GDBOP), at the time Stanimir Florov was an officer in the unit's predecessors.
Tsvetanov stood firmly behind him, rejecting all charges, and saying the anti-mafia chief was a top notch professional while the move of the prosecution equaled "national treason."
Also on Friday, Florov was temporarily released from duties pending the outcome of the investigation.
The order was signed by caretaker Interior Minister, Petya Parvanova.
Valentin Trifonov will be temporarily in charge of GDBOP.
The Sofia Directorate of Internal Affairs has reported a new and particularly dangerous method of drug distribution aimed at children
Bulgaria has launched the second phase of its “Winter” road safety operation, with traffic police stepping up monitoring of both drivers and pedestrians to ensure compliance with road regulations
Bulgaria’s ruling party does not plan to alter the proposed state budget for 2026, following a meeting between union leaders and GERB chairman Boyko Borissov
The Sofia City Court has acquitted the two police officers accused of escorting Dimitar Lyubenov on the night of the fatal crash on Sofia’s Ring Road
The District Prosecutor’s Office in Burgas has detained for up to 72 hours a Romanian citizen accused of intentionally causing the deaths of six migrants during a high-speed chase with police on Thursday night
Six migrants lost their lives in Burgas after the vehicle they were traveling in overturned and plunged into Lake Vaya during a high-speed police chase
Bulgarian brokerage firms have been implicated in an international investigation into a Russian money-laundering scheme. According to Intelligence Online
The Sofia Directorate of Internal Affairs has reported a new and particularly dangerous method of drug distribution aimed at children
The Sofia District Prosecutor’s Office has concluded that the dog named Maya, who was run over in Sofia’s Razsadnika neighborhood
The doctor involved in the fatal incident with the stray dog Maya has left Bulgaria
The Military Medical Academy (VMA) in Sofia has suspended North Macedonian citizen Dr. Nenad Tsonevski, who was involved in the case of a dog being run over in the capital’s Rassadnika district
The North Macedonian doctor from Sofia’s Military Medical Academy who ran over the stray dog Maya in the capital’s "Razsadnika" district has left the apartment he was renting
Bulgaria's Strategic Role in the EU's Drone Wall Defense Initiative
When Politics Means Violence
