Bulgarian Special Police Operation Leaves 5 under Arrest

Crime | July 8, 2011, Friday // 08:27|  views

The special police operation codenamed Shock has resulted in over 60 arrests and claims of police brutality. File photo

Five of the suspects detained during the special police operation codenamed Shock remain under arrest, the Sofia City Court ruled Thursday.

Hamid Hamid, Dimitar Slavchev, Alexander Vladimirov, Alexander Mirchev and Christian Hadzhiev have been charged with participating in a crime group dealing in bank card cloning and counterfeiting money in Bulgaria, Spain and Italy.

The five detainees will be able to appeal decision for the preventive measure to the Sofia Appellate Court next Tuesday.

Hamid Hamid, owner of the dog that was shot during his arrest, is believed to have installed card skimming devices.

The majority of the detainees are expected to appear in court on Friday and Saturday.

Due to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), the suspects remain under arrest until the court decides whether to honor it.

After that, they must be extradited to the country which issued the EAW, in this case Italy.

The three panels heading the case came up with different motives about the preventive measure, with some judges citing the risk of the detainees carrying out a new offence, while others emphasized the existence of reasonable doubt that the five suspects committed the offence.

Operation "Shock", staged on July 06 in 9 cities in Bulgaria and other EU countries, resulted in over 6o arrests.

The raid, organized by Bulgaria's Chief Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP), was carried out under the supervision of the Supreme Cassational Prosecutor's Office and in cooperation with Europol and the US Secret Service.

A total of 57 were detained in Sofia, Kyustendil, Plovdiv, Pazardzhik, Gabrovo, Stara Zagora, Shumen and Burgas, with five other detained in other EU countries.

The special police operation triggered renewed accusations of police brutality during the arrests.

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Tags: police brutality, Shock, special police operation, organized crime, bank card cloning, card skimming

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