Bulgaria’s Justice Minister is going to resign over the case of two children who were taken by Bulgarian officials from their father in Assenovgrad, to be handed to their Polish mother in terms of a custody order by a Bulgarian court, mass-circulation daily Trud said on June 3 2009.
 
The case sparked a furore after television coverage of actions by social workers and police in carrying out the order.
 
The social workers, protected by several police officers, were shown to drag two clearly upset children, aged six and eight, to a car with diplomatic licence plates, despite the protests of their father and the neighbours. The boy managed to escape and in subsequent days was reported to be in hiding with relatives in Assenovgrad.
 
The Sofia Appellate Court had awarded the Polish national custody of the children.
 
The father alleged that the mother had a drinking problem and did not take proper care of the children and this was why he had left the family home in Warsaw, taking the children with him to Assenovgrad, a town in central Bulgaria.
 
On May 31, Trud reported Tacheva as saying that it was a "provocation to invite the media with a mind not to comply with a court judgement," Tacheva said.
 
She was quoted as saying that the father could not gain rights by his unlawful conduct.
 
The same day, about 200 people from Assenovgrad held a protest outside the Polish embassy in Sofia. They called for the resignation of Tacheva.
 
On June 2, it emerged that the Bulgarian embassy in Warsaw had requested information on the condition of the daughter. A Polish television station reported that the child had said that she was happy.
 
On June 3, in a new interview with Trud, Tacheva was quoted as saying that she asked herself whether she could serve as justice minister in a country where the rule of law and a court order were interpreted in the way that they had been. She was quoted as asking whether it was worth living in a country whose courts daily were vilified.