Bulgarian authorities have rejected allegations that the October 6 2010 special operation against an unregistered Muslim group was anti-Islamic.
 
Prosecutors, Interior Ministry officials and the State Agency for National Security carried out the operation in southern Bulgaria against an Al Waqf Al Islami group.
 
On October 7, prosecutor Neli Popova said that about 30 sacks of evidence had been confiscated, including documents in Arabic, personal notes, computers, laptops, flash memory cards, as well as large sums in leva, euro and Arab state currencies.
 
Witnesses were being questioned, news website quoted Popova as saying.
 
According to the Interior Ministry, the operation, in the regions of Blagoevgrad, Pazardjik and Smolyan, found material advocating religious hatred and overthrow of the constitutional order, as well as evidence of breaches of financial and tax laws.
 
Al Waqf-Al Islami, reported to have been registered in Bulgaria in 1993 under the country’s laws on the registration of religious groups, was denied registration the following year. Some years ago, one of its leaders was expelled from Bulgaria as a threat to national security.
 
Focus quoted Smolyan District Prosecutors Office spokesperson Nedko Simov as saying that the material seized was being analysed, and pre-trial proceedings had been initiated on charges of managing or organising a criminal group.
 
Simov said that while the operation included raids on local imams’ homes, it was not directed against Islam.
 
He declined to provide further details, saying that the pre-trial material included classified information.
 
As The Sofia Echo has reported previously, Al Waqf-Al Islami, headquartered in Eindhoeven, has been monitored by Western intelligence services.
 
In the United States, its operations were shut down because of alleged links between members of the group and people involved in the planning of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
 
Al Waqf-Al Islami has denied being involved in any form of criminal activity and describes itself as a charitable organisation, involved in education and other issues.
 
The October 6 raids sparked outrage among residents of towns where the operation took place, with several hundred residents of Lazhnitsa reportedly crowding around the home of Imam Kamber to obstruct State Agency for National Security Agents and police from seizing material at the imam’s house.
 
Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported residents as alleging that the raids were the result of a power struggle within Bulgaria’s Muslims about who is the legitimate Chief Mufti, the spiritual leader of the country’s Muslim community.
 
BNT quoted Lazhnitsa mayor Bajram Razmanov as saying that imams who supported Mustapha Hadji, the rival to Chief Mufti Nedim Gendzhev, were "under attack at the moment".
 
Gendzhev is Chief Mufti following a court decision in Bulgaria which overturned the 2008 election of Hadji. The issue has been a continuing public issue for several months, drawing in political parties, Government ministers and leading to protest marches by Muslims.
 
Residents told BNT that they wanted an inventory of the books seized, to ensure that these all were returned and that no incriminating material was planted by investigators.
 
On October 7, prosecutors said that there were links between suspects in the Al Waqf Al Islami and radical Islam. The previous day, Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev said that preparations for the special operation had been underway for several months.