The ongoing row surrounding the Interior Ministry and minister Roumen Petkov has resurrected the opposition's claims that organised crime in Bulgaria had protection at the highest level of police and state administration. Below is a timeline mapping the main developments of the scandal.
November 28 2007. Iliya Iliev, chief secretary of Interior Ministry resigned from office. Besides "health problems", Iliev said he was grossly mislead into signing a document about a police operation which did not correspond to ministry's regulations. Police chief Valentin Petrov was named as Iliev's successor.
December 30 2007. Montenegrin-born drug boss Budimir Kujovic was arrested together with three Bulgarian nationals and 60kg of heroin. The media learned that Kujovic was issued with a Bulgarian passport despite a 10 year-ban on him entering the country.
January 1 2008. Iliev said he was the one who authorise the operation on issuing Kujovic with a Bulgarian passport. Iliev said the passport was part of a large scale police operation for the interception of four tons of drugs which did not happen. Again he said he was misled to authorise the operation. Iliev said he was not informed that the operation would include issuing a passport to Kujovic.
January 2 2008. Todor Dimov deputy head of Razgrad police directorate was dismissed by Interior Minster Roumen Petkov. Petkov said it was because the operation nicknamed by the media “the Kujovic affair” failed. The idea for the operation came from Razgrad police department, Petkov said.
January 2 2008. Dimov said he felt as the scapegoat in Kujovic affair. He said Valentin Petrov has shown strange interest in the case by personally collecting all the information on the case from Razgrad police station. Dimov said that current ministry's employees working for the drug mafia. An investigation in his words was launched by the Sofia District Military Prosecutor's Office.
January 14 2008. Prosecutor Kamen Sitnilski said Dimov presented no proof that Valentin Petrov had protected the production of synthetic drugs and drug trafficking in Bulgaria.
February 4 2008. Todor Dimov was reinstated as a ministry's employee after saying that the media had misunderstood him about Petrov.
February 8 2008. After immense pressure coming from the opposition the ruling majority formed an ad-hoc committee on Kujovic affair.
March 5 2008. The representatives of the opposition left the ad-hoc committee because the ruling majority had rejected all proposals that had come from the opposition.
March 18 2008. Ivan Ivanov, deputy head of the ministry's chief directorate for combating organised crime (CDCOC) was arrested on charges of malfeasance and leaking classified information.
March 21 2008. Bulgarian media received anonymous records of phone calls where Ivan Ivanov is discussing ongoing investigations.
March 24 2008. Interior Minster Roumen Petkov said he has had contacts with people under investigation. Besides meeting them personally Petkov said he had answered their phone calls. Otherwise these people would have become suspicious, he said. Petkov said he did all that in the best interest of the ministry and Bulgaria and was well aware that phone calls were tapped and the meetings were filmed.
March 25 2008 Iliya Iliev was arrested on charges of overstepping his authority and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said Iliev took a CD with classified information with him when resigning from his post in December.
March 26 2008 the Kujovic as-hoc committee published its final report. It found that no one was to blame for Kujovic's passport and the the ministry's did not protect drug trafficking in Bulgaria.
March 26 2008. Parliament's committee on internal order and public security heard Vanyo Tanov, former head of CDCOC, who said that Petkov's name appeared in the course of an CDCOC investigation under the name of Zapalkata (the Cigarette Lighter). Two individuals referred to Petkov as the cigarette lighter guy, Tanov said. According to Tanov, controversial businessman Alexei Petrov acted a intermediary in Petkov's meetings with people under investigation. Tanov left the ministry in July 2007 to compete for mayor of Rousse from the party led by Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, who is the former Interior Ministry's chief secretary.
March 27 2008. Petkov accused Tanov in blowing Alexei Petrov's cover as a ministry secret agent. Responding to the immense public pressure, the Prosecutor's Office asked State Agency for National Security to probe several cases of information leaks from the ministry.
March 31 2008. Petkov said he had no intention for resigning because of the row.
April 1 2008. The leadership of Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the senior partner in the ruling coalition recommended to Prime Minister and BSP leader Sergei Stanishev to keep Petkov on his post but to temporary dismiss Valentin Petrov for the duration of SANS' probe. Stanishev gave 10 days to Petkov to do a report on the ministry's work for the past 18 years. The report has to show all negative trends in the work of the ministry and lay down reform proposals.
