In a letter send to mediapool.bg on March 30 2008, former Interior Ministry chief secretary Iliya Iliev said his arrest aimed at preventing him from speaking before Parliament's committee on internal security and public order.

In his letter, Iliev said his arrest was organised by people who have committed crimes and wanted to stop people from revealing these crimes by giving testimonies. "I remain a Bulgarian officer and still have faith in Bulgarian institutions to whom I will disclose all the information I have," the letter said.

Iliev, currently under house arrest, was arrested on March 25 2008 on charges of obstruction of justice. Another reason for Iliev's arrest was that, when leaving the ministry last December, he had taken with him a pile of classified documents.

The documents, prosecutors said, referred to an investigation against Ivan Ivanov, deputy head of Interior Ministry's Chief directorate for combating organised crime (CDCOC). Ivanov was arrested on March 18 2008. He was charged with leaking confidential information about ongoing investigations.    

On March 30 2008, controversial businessmen Plamen Galev and Angel Hristov, known as the Galevi brothers, made their first media appearance after Interior Minister Roumen Petkov said last week that he has had meetings with them in 2006, while the two were under investigation.

Talking to private Darik radio, the two said that their role in the row around Petkov's contacts with people under investigation was part of a plan aimed to bring down the Cabinet. They said that they were the ones who asked to meet Petkov in 2006 to give him "sensitive information", but did not reveal any details.

The meeting was organised with the help of Alexei Petrov, a former member of Interior Ministry's elite anti-terrorism unit. The Galevi brothers are former ministry's employees as well.

Talking to Bulgarian National Television on March 31 2008, Galev said they wanted to give Petkov the information personally because they were not sure that it would reach him through the normal channels of the ministry.

On March 24 2008, Petkov hinted that the information he received concerned Bulgaria's European Union membership and the meeting proved to be a success given the fact that the country became an EU member on January 1 2007.

Petkov saw no reasons why a minister could not meet people under investigation. He was backed by Prime Minister Sergei Stansihev, who on March 27 2008 said Petkov's meetings were in no violation to the ministry's internal procedures, although Stanishev conceeded that he was not notified about them at the time.

Meanwhile, Petkov will hold a special meeting at the ministry to discuss the ministry's control over the circulation and storage of its documentation. The meeting comes a week after the media received the records of Ivanov's phone calls where he discussed ongoing investigations.

The records were part of the ministry's investigation against Ivanov. The phone records were sent to the media anonymously.