Beaten Family to Sue Bulgarian Police in European Court

The son of the beaten Mustafovi family, Kadir, has annoounced that his family has decided to sue the Bulgarian police in the European Court of Human Rights. Photo by BGNES

The Mustafovi family, in whose home the police have broken in Friday evening, will sue the Bulgarian police in the European Court of Human Rights.

During a Parliamentary hearing on Wednesday, the Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has accused the son of the family, Kadir Mustafov, of ordering two prostitutes.

According to the minister, the reason for the police entering the family home was that Kadir has called a taxi driver, who, according to the police, was a pimp and who's phone was under surveillance.

In an interview for the Bulgarian Darik Radio Wednesday, Kadir claimed he knew the alleged pimp only as a taxi driver.

The son also said that the only reason for him calling the man was to order a taxi for two friends of his.

“If I had ordered a prostitute, it would now be all over the media because I think he was under surveillance that night,” Kadir said, adding that he came home after his sister told him she has broken her head and that police officers were in their home.

The son has stated that his family would not sue the interior minister on calumny charges.

“We will first solve the case with my family and then the other case. In the next days we will be in touch with the lawyers and they will have a statement on the case. We are suing the excesses of the police against the family,” Kadir said.

Friday night the police entered the home of the Mustafovi family in the Bulgarian city of Kardzhali during a special police operation.

The policemen discovered only in the morning that they got the wrong address. The husband Sabahtin Mustafov and the son Kadir were arrested and released as soon as the mistake became evident.

The family’s daughter, who is a student at the Plovdiv University, suffered a concussion, and failed to pass her Monday’s exam as a result.

Aysel Mustafova has submitted petition with the local police and all relevant state institutions protesting the treatment of her family and insisting on a thorough investigation and punishment of the persons responsible for the incident.

Mustafova and her husband are former police officers themselves.

"I am ashamed of showing up on the street, the neighbors thought that my husband and I were in a fight. This is a brutal repression,” Mustafova said.

During an explanation in the Parliament, Minister Tsvetanov stated that Kadir was workingtogether with the real police's target – the pimp Dzhem Mustafa.