Alexander Tasev, president of Locomotiv Plovdiv football club, was shot dead in his luxury black Mercedes on May 14 in Sofias Boyana neighborhood.
Although Tasev was killed in broad daylight, police struggled to find any witnesses to the murder.
The news about the murder of Tasev, who was 45, was treated as a surprise by most Bulgarian-language media. The reason was that Tasev did not like to see his name in the media and preferred to keep a low profile. His name was little-known as anything other than as the president of a football club. Soon after his death, information about his profile as a business person started to appear in the media. It turned out that Tasev was the biggest exporter of Bulgarian cherries. This was more than enough for some media to nickname Tasev as having been the cherry king of Bulgaria. The second interesting thing is that Tasev is the third president of Locomotiv Plovdiv to have died violently. The two previous murders remained unsolved. First was Nikolai Popov who was killed in 2005. Months later Georgi Iliev was shot dead by a sniper in Slanchev Bryag summer resort, while Iliev was celebrating Lokomotivs win in the UEFA cup tournament.
The difference with Tasev’s case is that while Popov and most of all Iliev, were widely perceived as having being linked to organised crime, Tasev did not share such a reputation.
Besides the cherries, Tasev’s name can be found on the list of owners in close to 30 companies working in a variety of fields. Tasev was the owner of a shoe factory, several hotels and disco clubs, had a construction company, a company involved in wooden product manufacturing and a gas supply network. His name appeared as involved with companies that won public tenders to build gas supply networks in the towns of Sliven and Elin Pelin. Some media reports suggested that Tasev’s first million was thanks to his uncle who was one of the communist leaders in Tasev’s home town of Kyustendil 20 years ago.
Tasev’s most recent public appearances were in the presence of former prime minister and current leader of National Movement Simeon II, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, who watched a Locomotiv game in Tasev’s company. According to Bulgarian National Television (BNT) police were looking into three theories about the motives for Tasevs murder.
Usually, the motives for such public murders are said to include drug trafficking, personal conflicts and business interests, with the latter usually the leading reason offered. Police based their theories about the motives for the two previous killings on these scenarios.
Bearing in mind the lack of result in these investigations, Tasevs case appears very unlikely to have a different outcome. The main problem is that Tasev was involved in so many different businesses and it may prove very difficult for the police to identify a potential threat as there might appear to have been too many, as was the case with Iliev.
Tasev’s death was the third high-profile public murder for the year in Bulgaria, and attracted the attention of both the foreign media and European Union institutions.
In January, Elin Pelin mayor Yanko Yankov was found dead in his yard after having been shot seven times. On May 10, Dimitar Yankov, chairman of the municipal council of the small resort town of Nessebar on the Black Sea, died after being shot seven times in his car in another Black Sea city, Bourgas. While the first Yankov was not a businessman, the second was one of the major hotel owners on the Black Sea coast and police were investigating a connection with his business activity.
Either way, the Tasev murder again appeared in the foreign media as the major news about Bulgaria. Everyone from the BBC, Reuters, The Guardian to media from neighbouring countries, reported Tasev’s killing.
The murder found Interior Minister Roumen Petkov and Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev in Brussels where they were meeting European Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini. The three were meeting to discuss Bulgaria’s progress in dealing with organised crime and corruption in the light of the EC report on Bulgaria that will be published in June.
Petkov told BNT after his meeting with Frattini that in 2001 Tasev had been investigated but the investigations had been halted.
“I am going to check why these investigations were stopped and by whom,” Petkov said.
He said that Bulgaria was in no danger of the EC imposing a safeguard clause on the country, as France and the UK reportedly demanded recently. Petkov even quoted figures according to which the number of high-profile contract murders in Bulgaria had gone down since the Bulgarian Socialist Party, of which he is a member, came to power in 2005.
According to Petkov’s data, in the period 1999-2000 there were 10 contract murders in Bulgaria. The record was set in 2001 with 21 people killed by assassins, while in 2005 the number was between 13 and 18 people.
In 2006 contract murders went down considerably and we should bear this in mind, Petkov said, a few hours after Tasev’s death.
Velchev discussed with Frattini the possibility of EC officials monitoring Bulgarian investigators work on the case involving Sofia heating utility Toplofikatsia. Two weeks ago, the name of Energy and Economy Minister Roumen Ovcharov was drawn into in the case and the consequent controversy led to Ovcharov being sent on compulsory leave.
Because of the public interest in the controversy, Petkov and Velchev sent a letter to the EC inviting them to come to monitor the work of Bulgarian authorities on it, as proof of their transparency.
EC secretary general Catherine Day signed a response on May 15 which said before taking a final decision on the case, the EC needs further information on the kind of aid Bulgaria would need to deal with the issue.
Four days earlier, the EC said that Bulgaria should clarify whether it needed general expert aid or specific advice on dealing with corruption schemes. This was taken by Bulgarian-language media as refusal by the EC to interfere in Bulgarias domestic matters and most of all, of the ECs negative view of the state of Bulgarias legal system.
