Bulgaria Top Cop Reinstated in Office

Ivan Drashkov appealed the decision for his dismissal and won the court trial. Photo by BGNES

The former deputy director of the Bulgarian State National Security Agency (DANS), dubbed the country's FBI, has been reinstated in office.

Ivan Drashkov was dismissed last year when the agency was headed by Petko Sertov at the proposal of the then Prime Minister, Socialist Sergey Stanishev.

Drashkov appealed the decision for his dismissal and won the court trial.

Unconfirmed information says Drashkov has an agreement with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to be back at work for about a week around the Christmas holidays so that he can settle scores at the agency and get “moral satisfaction”, which was, in his own words, the aim of the court battle.

Other reports however say that Drashkov plans to be continue his long-term career in the contra-intelligence.

In one of his latest media appearances, Drashkov described DANS operations as similar to those of an organized group.

"DANS acted like an organized crime gang," DANS former deputy director Ivan Drashkov commented at the end of October in the morning broadcast of the private bTV channel.

According to him DANS officials have been physically abused and threatened by their colleagues with tactics close to that of the mafia.

The National Security Agency (DANS) was in the spotlight in Bulgaria at that time, following the leak of a classified report on organized crime.

The year-old top secret report by the National Security Agency (DANS), which sheds light on the influence of criminal organizations within certain ministries and state agencies, leaked and ended up published online.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announced on Saturday that he had received the report from former secret service agent Alexey Petrov, who used to advise former DANS director Petko Sertov.

"I will neither confirm, not deny what is in this report that I wrote. I am not allowed to do this as this is classified information," Drashkov commented on Wednesday.

He said the report was prepared at the beginning of October upon his resignation as DANS deputy chairman.

"My aim was to describe facts, events, reasons that led to the scandalous style and methods of DANS," Drashkov added.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has urged prosecutors to charge his predecessor Sergei Stanishev and others for the leak of the report, saying it exposed the country’s inability to tame organized crime.

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