The Ministry of Interior beats both its own and others’

The Kostinbrod District Court convicted two employees of the Internal Security Directorate in the Ministry of Interior who beat a firefighter by mistake. Съдията Стефан Стойков обаче вече 9 месеца не успява да напише мотивите по решението си, за да мине делото на въззивна инстанция.

About the firefighter from Kostinbrod Ivaylo Georgiev Kirov April 1, 2021 is not just a day of lies. The man took his fish tackle somewhere around the bridge over the Blato River, near the church ” St. Cyril and Methodius” to try his luck. And also to relax. Kirov is an avid fisherman. The next day (April 2, 2021) are the parliamentary elections and he was supposed to be on duty in one of the polling stations.

Near the place, which is located in the central part of Kostinbrod, there was a coffee machine and around 5 p.m. Kirov went to get coffee. As he was returning to the fishing rods with 2 cups of coffee and a bottle of mineral water, two men jumped out of an Audi A3 and pounced on top of him. One of them, who passed behind him, gave him a chokehold, and when Kirov was already on the ground, the other hit and kicked him.

The men constantly asked him where the money was. In his diagonal bag, however, the firefighter had only small items and his documents. As a result of the blows, Kirov’s ribs cracked, and he found himself moaning on the ground and unable to move from the pain.

Then another Volvo car arrived at the scene and three or four more men jumped out of it. There were witnesses to the incident who tried to stop the beating and called 112.

What was Kirov’s surprise when he realized that these attackers were not some street bandits, but employees of the Internal Security Directorate in the Ministry of Interior. According to BIRD’s sources, they did not identify themselves in any way, did not show official cards, there were no shouts of “police”, etc.

Obviously, the “law enforcement officers” remain faithful to the tradition of the People’s Militia to beat hard and in violation of the law. They beat strangers and their own, with or without a reason.

Confused the site

The essence of the situation proves that there are no jokes about the Ministry of Interior, and everything is true! The top policemen from the State Internal Affairs simply confused the object! We have all heard how the Ministry of Interior storms the wrong addresses and breaks down the doors of homes with unsuspecting citizens in them.

It turns out that the State Internal Affairs Service beats up the unsuspecting firefighter, meekly fishing, because it confuses him with a policeman suspected of corruption. The operation is led by the current Director of the Directorate, Senior Commissioner Georgi Petrov Georgiev, who was then Sector Head of Department 02 in the State Internal Affairs. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Georgiev’s illegal actions were assisted by Momchil Penev

– then also an employee of the State Internal Affairs Service – an intelligence officer in 01 Department. Today, Penev, according to acquaintances, is a senior cadre in the Narcotics Department of the Directorate of Internal Affairs.

The ridiculous incident is a result of the operation to detain the former employee of the Sofia Police Department – Veselin Kostadinov . Той към момента на акцията е служител на икономическа полиция в Костинброд и е разработван във връзка с данни за поискан от него подкуп. С реализацията му МВР се в хвали дни след изборите.

However, the operation to detain Kostadinov has apparently gotten out of control. The operatives at some point lost the object after he took the marked money, given as a bribe demanded by him. In order to get their money back, the employees of the State Internal Affairs Agency embarked on a chase around Kostinbrod, and then in the direction of Sofia. Eyewitnesses say that Kostadinov was detained near the village of Mramor. According to BIRD sources, however, the marked money disappeared during the operation.

Today, Kostadinov is accused, but his case has not yet been submitted to court. The Sofia District Prosecutor’s Office could not tell us whether he was detained with markings or only his hands “lit up” as evidence that he was in contact with the incriminated denominations.

While the operatives are looking for Kostadinov and the marked money, they somehow stumble upon Ivaylo Kirov. Вероятно под влияние на адреналин и вследствие на настъпилата паника, служителите на ДВС си изпускат нервите и започват да го бият.

Kostadinov and Kirov were not visually alike at all. The firefighter is about 10 – 15 cm taller. by the employee of the economic police in Kostinbrod. According to the materials of the state prosecution, the State Internal Affairs Service had seen Kistadinov only in a photo in the BDS (Bulgarian identity documents).

A broken rib (according to the victim) and multiple chest injuries later of the “corrupt hunters in the Ministry of Interior” It became clear that they had mistaken the man. In the critical situation, the then director of the internal combustion engine, Stefcho Bankov, personally came to the scene to minimize the damage.

The police tried to get the victim into the Audi with which they arrived, then into the official Opel, with which Bankov arrived. However, due to the pain from the injuries, Kirov could not curl up and get into the car. He had to be sent a linear hospital from the Ministry of Interior.

We beat you, but don’t go against ours

A publication on a regional website makes allegationsthat Ivaylo Kirov was pressured not to seek his rights in court. The publication claims that he was persuaded by the then head of the Kostinbrod Regional Directorate Alexander Netsov to withdraw his complaint against the employees of the State Internal Affairs.

The publication links the behavior of the head of the police department with pressure from Stefcho Bankov. Due to the many eyewitnesses and the arrival of an ambulance from the Ministry of Interior hospital, the case could hardly be swept away. The fact is that an investigation is being launched. Our team asked for comment the former director of the State Internal Affairs, who is currently a prosecutor’s assistant in the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Sotir Tsatsarov. Bankov refused to comment on the details of the operation, but said that there could be no question of an attempt to cover up the case:

“There is no such thing. Even I, as a director, ordered a probe into what happened, to clarify everything. There is no such thing.”

We also contacted Ivaylo Kirov, who confirmed the incident, as well as the rib injury, but denied that he had been pressured to withdraw his complaint by anyone.

Of the eight employees of the State Internal Affairs Department who participated in these disturbing events for both the victim and the public, only two have been charged. The prosecutor from the Kostinbrod District Prosecutor’s Office, Stefka Yankova, filed charges against Georgi Georgiev and Momchil Penev in court. They are held liable for inflicting minor bodily harm in their capacity as officials – Art. 131, para. 2 of the Penal Code.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Momchil Penev was the one who, without identifying himself, simply gave a choke grip on Ivaylo Georgiev Kirov. While this was happening, Georgi Georgiev was imposing the firefighter. After Kirov was traumatized enough not to be able to stand up, the two continued to punch and kick him. When the other fishermen tried to intervene, other employees of the internal combustion engine appeared and made a “shelter”.

Fine for beaters

On April 5, 2023, Kostinbrod District Court Judge Stefan Stoykov found the police officers guilty, replacing their criminal liability with administrative – criminal liability under Art. 78a of the Penal Code. The “law enforcement officers” were imposed modest fines, but if this conviction is confirmed, the two will not be able to work in the police due to incompatibility.

However, the decision of Judge Stefan Stoykov has not entered into force. The spokesperson of the Sofia District Prosecutor’s Office, Prosecutor Hristina Lulcheva, noted that the Prosecutor’s Office was satisfied with the decision reached, but it was appealed by the victim. Certainly, however, there was no lawsuit, because Judge Stoykov had not yet prepared the reasons for his decision. The Kostinbrod District Court specified that the court’s decision is also appealed by the convicted persons.

It is curious how the motives in this administrative-criminal case have not been written for more than 9 months. While the court is delayed, people are working on the field who, with a high degree of probability, do not have the right to be in the capacity of police officers.

In March 2023, another signal related to Momchil Penev reached us. Тогава служители на отдел “Drugs” of the Sofia Police Department detained a person on the street with 0.9 grams. Cannabis. This happens after 23:00. Momchil Penev, took the keys of the detainee and entered his apartment on their own. With them there is no investigating policeman, there are no underwriters, and nothing suggests urgency.

The person detained with weed keeps him in front of the block instead of allowing him to call a lawyer! What the police later learned was that the apartment was equipped with video surveillance. The employees of the Sofia Police Department enter the property on their own! Their actions, objectified by the camera recordings, suggest two hypotheses – crimes against property or an attempt to “throw” evidence! The police, however, were surprised, in the apartment of the detained person they found his mother sleeping peacefully in the bedroom. She is even more surprised by them.

For several hours, the police did not know what to do. She was kept as a criminal until 03:30 a.m., when a group of inspectors, persons and her son went into the apartment for inspection. Whatever they found after 03:30 by the inspection group was compromised because the employees of the drug department crossed the apartment for more than 3 and a half hours without control, supervision and overtakers.

So while the court is delaying with its motives, at least one of the police officers sanctioned with an administrative and criminal sanction continues to give reasons for new cases to be opened against him.

The events mentioned above seem to support the thesis that The Ministry of Interior, and probably the other law enforcement agencies, should be closed down and re-established in order to work. Georgia has first-hand experience in this direction.

In particular, the situation in the internal combustion engine is very complicated. Georgi Georgiev is considered the most favorite chief of staff because he pressured his subordinates to work in these troubled times. However, this court decision puts his future in the Ministry of Interior at stake.

On the other hand, the former director of the State Internal Affairs Service, Stefcho Bankov, who was dismissed by the Ministry of Interior during the time of Boyko Rashkov, won a case against his dismissal and has the right to be reinstated as head of a directorate in the Ministry of Interior, and it is possible that this is the State Internal Affairs. To date, Bankov is still a prosecutor’s assistant to Sotir Tsatsarov, but at the time when the SJC was removing Ivan Geshev, Bankov was named by today’s acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov as the main figure in the “private external surveillance

” of his predecessor. So far, Sarafov has not proven his allegations and there is no evidence that he has made an attempt to get rid of Bankov.

Lead photo: Senior Commissioner Georgi Petrov Georgiev (right)

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This post is also available in: Български (Bulgarian)