The European Court of Human Rights has unanimously declared the application of Aleksei Petrov, a controversial businessman, ex-secret agent and alleged crime boss, inadmissible. The decision is final.

Aleksei Petrov lodged an application with the European Court of Human Rights in 2004, citing articles dealing with the right to fair trial and private life.

The applicant, who is widely known in Bulgarian society as a former officer of the national anti-terrorist squad and later as being the alleged leader of the organizer crime group "Octopus", brought in 2002 a criminal complaint for defamation against Edvin Sugarev, a former member of Parliament known for his publications about crimes allegedly committed by high-ranking officials, in connection with his statements made during interviews. He lost all of them.

Strasbourg court ruled that the judges in the cases which Aleksei Petrov had brought, had given reasons for all their rulings and had not disclosed any bias, either in favour of Edvin Sugarev or against Petrov.

In an interview given to Trud daily newspaper on 4 December 2002, Edvin Sugarev spoke about having submitted over 100 documents to the Minister of Justice. The documents allegedly incriminated the then Prosecutor General in various misdeeds and offences. According to Sugarev, they also concerned a case of a bank manager who complained of having been racketeered by Aleksei Petrov and who, instead of having his complaint investigated by the law enforcement authorities, had been detained for false accusations.

On 28 December 2002, Kolev, a high-ranking prosecutor, was shot dead in front of his home in Sofia. On the following day, Sugarev gave two more interviews, to Darik Radio and BTV respectively. During the interviews he stated that, according to information brought to his knowledge by the late prosecutor Kolev, Aleksei Petrov, who was close to the Prosecutor General, was linked to at least one murder and to deals with the Serbian mafia. The two interviews were reported in Trud and in another daily newspaper, 24 Hours, shortly afterwards.

Since his release under house arrest in early October, Aleksei Petrov aka the Octopus, who is sued for various criminal activities, has emerged at the center of the Bulgarian political scene with various figures exchanging accusations that they are bound to him.

Petrov has gone as far as to say that he might run for President in 2011, in a move that might blow up domestic politics.