Ex Bulgarian President Awarded International Drug Smuggler

During his term in office, ex Bulgarian President, Georgi Parvanov, was exposed as a former agent of the Communist State Security. Photo by BGNES

Former Bulgarian President, Georgi Parvanov, has bestowed a State order to an international illegal drugs dealer.

On August 2, 2003, in the southwestern city of Blagoevgrad, Parvanov had given the order to Alexander Stoimenov during a public ceremony.

Stoimenov has been arrested in Italy in the distant 1968 over the possession of 2 kg of heroin. After serving his jail sentence in Italian prison, he had moved to Belgium. He opened in Brussels the scandalous restaurant "Kosharata" (The Sheep Pen), believed to be a gathering place for the Communist secret services of now-former Yougoslavia.

The restaurant has been set on fire two times, rattling the then quiet and peaceful Brussels.

Stoimenov has been born in Macedonia and prior to the drug bust has spent time in Macedonian jail.

Following a journalist investigation, the current Bulgarian special services, have informed that after the fall of Communism in 1989 in Bulgaria, every time Stoimenov crossed the border, he was subject of thorough checks and search.

During his two terms in office President Parvanov has given a large number of State orders and awards to people, some of whom are seen at least as controversial.

Another issue that drew public attention was the pardons granted after the suspicion cast over the practices of former Vice President Angel Marin.

In his ten years in office, Marin signed 49 decrees for full or partial pardons despite the negative statements of the Pardons Committee.

During the two terms in office of President Georgi Parvanov and Vice President Angel Marin, 529 people granted pardons, among them 232 murder convicts.

Parvanov was also exposed as a former agent of the Communist State Security under the alias "Gotse." He first denied it, but was later forced to public admit his affiliation with the Communist services, downplaying it by saying he had been assigned only "patriotic" tasks.

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