TWO domestic and one foreign scandal marked the Interior Ministry’s efforts for dealing with the crime in the country in the past week.
The first event involved a high-profile police official, General Valentin Petrov, head of the National Police Service. On November 10, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov punished Petrov by giving him a written warning.

The punishment came as a result of Petrov’s November 9 statement in the Sofia Court building when the court was about to rule on the case of “The Margin” brothers, who were accused of plotting a murder.

Petrov said that “the court must show whether it has a place in the state”. Though the brothers remained in custody, Petkov viewed Petrov’s statement as unacceptable for a high-ranking police official. Petkov accused him of making a statement in regard to a case that was still in court.

Petrov’s punishment was a surprise to the Bulgarian-language media because the policy of the Interior Ministry in such cases is to not make public announcements of punishments of high-ranking officers. The reasoning is that the punished officer must keep his authority in front of his staff.

That was not the case with Petrov, who, by an Interior Ministry draft bill, is expected to take the post of the future General Police Directorate, making him the strongman in the Interior Ministry.

Information about his punishment was published on the official web site of the Ministry.

Petkov personally appointed Petrov as head of National Police Service two months ago. Before that he had an undisputed reputation as head of the police in the city of Plovdiv. Petrov refused comment about his punishment.

On November 11, another controversy ensued after the arrest of two students: Vlado Trichkov,  a history student, and Stefan Andonov, a student in philosophy, both at Sofia University.

They were detained for 24 hours by a police patrol for trying to paste propaganda material on the walls of Sofia Synagogue, an act forbidden by law.

According to the police statement, the two students started to insult the police patrol, then attacked them and resisted arrest. One of the officers later complained that he was beaten and kicked in the head by the students.

The patrol asked for help and, together with their colleagues, managed to arrest the students. They continued to insult the policemen while being taken to the local station, saying that they had political support from a party represented in Parliament.

In the police station, the insults and aggressive behaviour by the two boys continued and they were detained for 24 hours. Later, a prosecutor prolonged their detention to 72 hours.

Trichkov and Andonov were accused of hooliganism, attacking and insulting a police officer and resisting arrest. The scandal gained momentum when – on the very night of the arrest – three MPs from the parliamentary group of ultra-nationalist party Ataka, Stella Bankova, Mincho Hristov and Vladimir Kouzov, went to the station. They criticised the officers, saying that the students were innocent and the police abused them.

After that, the MPs – together with Petar Beron, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, also from Ataka – demanded their immediate release from arrest.

In a media statement, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov rejected all accusations and expressed complete support for the actions of the policemen that night. He also described the interference of the MPs in police work as “unacceptable”.

The students were released on bail on November 15. They denied all accusations, saying, “It was all made up by the police,” and declared a hunger strike against police abuse.

A third incident occurred over the weekend, when German magazine Der Spiegel published a report about a stolen German luxury car. The car had been found in Bulgaria, but not returned to its owner in Germany.

The stolen BMW X5 was stopped at the Bulgarian border with Serbia on its way to Turkey from Germany. The driver was charged, and then extradited back to Germany after three weeks.

That was not the case with the vehicle. It was not returned to the owners, even though the German federal investigation service had conveyed to Interpol Sofia that it was stolen. Although the owners had taken all steps required by Bulgarian law to claim the car, they say they were only referred from one institution to another.

Finally, the car came into the jurisdiction of the Slivnitsa prosecutor’s office. It was this office that decided the car should be claimed by the state, because it had been illegally imported into the country. The decision allowed Svetlin Mihailov, head of the Sofia City Court, to use the car.

After the report in Der Spiegel, Mihailov decided to return the car to the Bulgarian Finance Ministry, which is in charge of Bulgarian Customs. By Bulgarian law, Customs is the new owner of the vehicle after its detention. According to Bulgarian language newspapers, a solution to the problem can be expected in February 2006.