Bulgaria Socialist Party Involved in Serbian Drug Lord Scandal

The former Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Interior Affairs Ministry, Valentin Petrov. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

High ranking individuals from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) are behind the scandal involving Serbian drug lord, Budimir Kujovic, and former top employees of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry.

Te revelations were made Monday by former Chief Secretary of the Interior, Valentin Petrov, who spoke in an interview for the TV channel bTV, saying people from BSP wanted to oust Interior Minister, Rumen Petkov.

Petrov showed on live TV a letter from the BSP Advisor on Interior Affairs, Tsvyatko Tsvetkov, to the BSP leader and former Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev.

“Now is the time to strike the high echelons of the Interior,” the letter reads.

Petrov further said the leadership of the then National Agency for State Security (DANS) was concealing evidence from the Prosecutor's office, including documents from the Kujoic case, and that the statements of now Interior minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov about DANS acting as political police were true.

The former Chief Secretary said there were serious leaks of information, the probe of the DANS activities was purposely delayed, and the Agency top employees, including former Director, Petko Sertov, were fulfilling political orders.

In the meantime, Darik radio reported Monday that Valentin Petrov had received threats in connection with the Kujovic case.

Petrov told Darik that there were attempts to influence him and he would submit proof to the Prosecutor's Office.

The former top cop also said Kujovic had been illegally taken out of prison in 2009 and sent to DANS where employees tried to convince him to discredit Petrov and former Interior Minister, Rumen Petkov.

On September 24, Kujovic stated before the court that while he was doing business in Bulgaria he used to give money as bribe to Petkov and Petrov. He later confirmed those statements in an interview the TV channel bTV.

In his words, the case started after he stopped paying. He stated that his claims could be proved, because there were full records of the information exchange between him, Petrov and Petkov.

Valentin Petrov firmly rejected Kujovic’s accusations and said he had proof the Serbian was lying.

The case has been repeatedly postponed over what the defendant has complained are "procedure violations", such as the lack of a Montenegrin-Bulgarian translator in the court room.

Despite the prosecutors' protest that Kujovic understands written and spoken Bulgarian perfectly, so far the trial against him, Nikolay Paskov, Mihail Yankov, and Stoyko Doychev has misfired.

In 2008, Kujovic was sentenced to 16 years in jail, and a BGN 220 000 fine for organizing and conducting drug trafficking. Nikolay Paskov has an effective 10 years sentence, and must pay a BGN 100 000 fine.

The other two have effective sentences of between 10 and 15 years, and must pay fines from BGN 100 000 to BGN 200 000.

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