Bulgarian Expert: Kidnappings Must Be Treated as Terrorism

Police expert Ivan Boyadzhiev (standing) and lawyer Marin Markovski (sitting) during Friday's discussion. Photo by BGNES

It is about time that kidnapping be treated in Bulgaria as a form of terrorism, according to Ivan Boyadzhiev, expert on combating organized crime.

During a public discussion on kidnappings in Sofia Friday, Boyadzhiev insisted on legislative changes and quicker procedures allowing the use of special intelligence devices in kidnapping cases.

Boyadzhiev believes that if kidnappings were legally treated as terrorism that would lead to a great improvement in the work on such cases, which currently were treated as "hooliganism", in his words.

According to top Sofia lawyer Marin Markovski, a wave of kidnappings of children of famous people was not likely because the handling of kids was complicated and troublesome.

The Deputy Sofia Prosecutor, Roman Vasilev, who was also present at the public discussion, promised a new package of legal changes to fight kidnappings would be prepared shortly.

In the last couple of years Bulgaria has seen a number of kidnappings. The most notable of these include the kidnapping of Angel Bonchev, President of Football Club Litex in 2008, and the kidnapping of businessman Kiro Kirov in the spring of 2009. Both of these men were released alive; the ransom paid for Kirov was EUR 620 000.

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