4 Cars Torched in Bulgaria, 2 Owned by Police Employees

Mysterious car arsons started occurring in the beginning of December and spread from Sofia to other cities and towns. File photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Two more cars were set on fire Sunday into Monday in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv.

The news was reported by local police. The two cars belong to the same family, where the husband and wife are employed by the Plovdiv police.

Both cars have burned partially and arson is suspected in both cases.

A car burned in the Black Sea city of Varna as well. Eyewitnesses say that a cocktail Molotov was thrown on the automobile from a nearby school yard. The owners believe this is a case of arson. The authorities are probing the incident.

Another car was also set on fire overnight in the Black Sea city Burgas, but police there say the fire had been caused by a short circuit in the computer of the car. The car's front window and the inside of the vehicle have been damaged.

There had been over 60 such incidents in Sofia in the last two months and over 30 others outside the capital.

Police say that the arsons were committed by several groups with different motives and some have been copycat criminal actions. Others believe the arsons were set on purpose by an unknown, but powerful mastermind in order to destabilize the cabinet of the ruling GERB.

Recently, the Sofia District Court ruled to keep Ivan Kamenov, the fourth suspect regarding the recent series of car arsons in Bulgaria's capital Sofia, in custody.

The court believes that Kamenov is likely to hide or commit other crimes if he is released. The suspect has had a previous sentence for arson.

Kamenov has been accused of torching a vehicle in Sofia's Lyulin residential district. His lawyers have pointed out that the witnesses who have implicated him in the crime have criminal records or have been under the influence of cannabis, which would make their accounts doubtful.

Another arson suspect is being held in jail in the Black Sea city of Varna – Georgi Georgiev, an individual with a criminal record, charged with setting on fire two cars in the nearby town of Aksakovo.

On December 27, the Sofia Appellate Court released Yuliyan Kovachki , 29, on own recognizance. Kovachki was allegedly responsible for several arsons that took place in the Mladost residential district.

Several days earlier, another suspect, 33-year-old Vladislav Nikolov AKA Kukata (The Hook) was also released on own recognizance. On December 20, suspect Radoslav Stoyanov was released on a BGN 1700 bail.

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