Prosecution would interrogate alleged crime bosses Mladen Mihalev, aka Madjo, as well as Krasimir Marinov and Nikolai Marinov, aka the Margin brothers, in relation to the murder of Georgi Stoev on April 7 2008, Sofia prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov told Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on April 8.
Stoev was the author of several books on organised crime in Bulgaria. He was shot in the head around 1pm near Pliska Hotel on Tsarigradsko Chausse in Sofia, one of the busiest bus stops in the city. Later in the evening, Stoev died.
Madjo and the Margin brothers were among the characters in Stoev’s books, that being the reason why they would be interrogated. “We have to check up everything he [Stoev] had written,” Kokinov said. Prosecution would use Interpol services if needed to interrogate Madjo as he is abroad, Kokinov said. The Margin brothers are in Bulgaria under house arrest.
Before his death, Stoev had repeately told the media that he wanted to testify against the organised criminal groups he allegedly was part of and that his life was in danger. Kokinov said that a prosecution representative was send to Stoev, but he refused to testify, which was why prosecution lost interest in his case. “If he really wanted to testify, the procedure was clear,” Kokinov said, adding that it did not involve writing books to increase his rating.
According to one of Stoev’s publishers, Nedyalko Nedyalkov, Stoev was a key witness in the trial against Madjo. He went to the police and confessed that Madjo had assigned him to carry out murders, though he claimed never went through with them. Police notified Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev, who in his turn told Interior Minister Roumen Petkov. Petkov was the one to cancel the operation, Nedyalkov told private broadcaster Nova Television.
Stoev’s murder happened amid a corruption row in the Interior Ministry, which has been raging for nearly a month. Opposition claims that high-level officials, including Petkov, protected organised crime in Bulgaria. In mid-March, the deputy head of the Interior Ministry chief directorate for combating organised crime, Ivan Ivanov, was arrested on charges of leaking confidential information about ongoing investigations. A record of his telephone calls with shady businessmen was sent anonymously to the media. A week after the arrest, on March 25, former Interior Ministry chief secretary general Iliya Iliev was also arrested and charged with overstepping his authority, tantamount to an obstruction of justice. Meanwhile, Petkov admitted meeting businessmen who were investigated by police at the time, claiming his actions benefitted both Bulgaria and the Interior Ministry.
The row sparked an immediate reaction in the European Commission (EC). During his official one-day visit to Bulgaria on March 28 2008, EC president José Barroso slammed Bulgaria over its inability to deal with corruption and organised crime.
Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev still refuses to dismiss Petkov, although coalition partners, National Movement for Stability and Progress and Movement for Rights and Freedoms, had already signalled that they were ready to sacrifice the minister. President Georgi Purvanov even said that Petkov had the qualities and the will to carry out the reforms in the ministry. Petkov and Stanishev are both members of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the senior partner in the ruling coalition. Purvanov was BSP's leader before he was elected president.
Stoev’s murder was the second one in less than 24 hours in Sofia. On April 6, Borislav Georgiev, the chief executive of the firm Atomenergoremont, which is closely linked to businessman Hristo Kovachki, was shot dead on the stairs of the Lyulin apartment building in which he lived. Georgiev had no previous criminal record, according to Bulgarian-language media, which quoted anonymous police sources.
