Bulgarian Prosecutor Demands 'Octopus' Re-arrest

Crime | May 3, 2012, Thursday // 12:55|  views

"Octopus" defendants, Marchelo Dzholotov (front) and Alexey Petrov (back) are seen being escorted to the Courtroom. File phot

The Bulgarian Prosecutor's Office requested Thursday a new arrest for defendant Alexey Petrov on grounds he had pressured witnesses in the trail.

The Sofia City Court reconvened Wednesday to resume the hearings in the high profile criminal case, following a two-month suspension over the broken leg of a defendant.

Petrov – a former employee of the State Agency for National Security, DANS, murky businessman and alleged crime boss, together with five other people, is facing charges of racketeering and extortion. He was arrested on February 10 2010, in a special operation codenamed "Octopus."

Late Wednesday evening, key witness, Plamen Ustinov, former employee of Bulgaria's National Security Services, NSO, testified in Court that he came across the defendant in the town of Teteven three days ago and the later attempted to convince him to scrape his testimony. He further explained that this had been the third such meeting between them while various individuals had been coming to him ever since the arrest to offer him money to give up on appearing on the witness stand.

In an earlier Court session in another case, Ustinov told the magistrates that Petrov had assigned him to murder Litex CEO, Grisha Ganchev, a petrol businessman and owner of Litex football club. (Bulgaria recently launched the mass production of cars under the Chinese Great Wall badge by Ganchev's Litex Motors near the northern city of Lovech.) The "Octopus" had further asked him to kill Vasil Bozhkov AKA The Scull, a murky Bulgarian businessman, as well as Valentin Shotev, who is also a witness in the "Octopus" case.

The magistrates are currently deciding if they should honor the re-arrest request.

The detainees in the "Octopus" case were initially charged with organizing prostitution, drug trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, tax fraud and embezzlement.

In the summer of 2010, the prosecutor declared that it was impossible to solve the case with one trial and opened two trials against a total of 25 defendants, deploying a team of three prosecutors.

Petrov was released on house arrest in October 2010 after spending 8 months under arrest, which in February 2011 was changed to own recognizance. He ran for President in the end-October elections.

He continues to insist that the case against him is political retribution. He vowed to sue for libel all who testify against him, and stressed that this case will end up being a serious blow to national security and a humiliation for Bulgaria. The defendant reiterated for the media Thursday that the cabinet and personally Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, are racketeering him.

He further denied pressuring any witness and explained that the meeting in question had been requested by Ustinov himself.

At the end of January, Ex-England Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith officially joined Petrov's defense team, hinting for journalists that he believes his client is innocent.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!


Tags: Alexey Petrov, mafia, DANS, trial, court, racketeering, extortion, witness, prosecution, Octopus, Plamen Ustinov, trial, Prosecutor, Sofia City Court, Litex, Grisha Ganchev, Vasil Bozhkov

Back  

» Related Articles:

Search

Search