Bulgaria's Ex Interior Minister Fined BGN 100 for Refusing Police Registration

Tsvetan Tsvetanov, former Bulgarian Interior Minister and current MP and Deputy Chair of the center-right GERB party, photo by BGNES

Former Bulgarian Interior Minister and current MP and Deputy Chair of the center-right GERB party, Tsvetan Tsvetanov has been fined BGN 100 over refusing to have his personal information (DNA sample, fingerprints, photo, etc) taken and entered into police register.

According to reports of the Interior Ministry, Tsvetanov, who has been indicted for allowing Interior Ministry officials to engage in illegal wiretapping and is to be issued a second indictment soon, refused to have his DNA, fingerprints and photograph taken and entered into the police database.

Tsvetanov was fined BGN 100 at the Sofia District Police Directorate because he refused to comply with police orders, violating Ordinance Iз-701, which he had approved during his term in office as Interior Minister.

Tsvetanov is said to have argued that the Ordinance contradicted the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Penal Procedure Code, according to reports of the Legal World magazine.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry suggested that he had refused to have his personal data taken and entered into police registers by taking advantage of a loophole in the Ordinance which did not specify what happened when defendants refused registration.

Tsvetanov is subject to mandatory police registration due to the indictment issued against him on June 12 over his failure to exercise proper control over Interior Ministry officials, thereby enabling the unauthorized deployment of special surveillance equipment against high-profile politicians, magistrates and businesspeople.

On Monday, Tsvetanov appeared at the Sofia District Police Directorate to have his police registration taken in line with the requirements of the Interior Ministry Act.

Tsvetanov instead presented his reasons for refusing registration in writing and he was fined BGN 100.

According to dnevnik.bg, Tsvetanov also claimed that he had been summoned for police registration at a time when he had been requested to appear at the Sofia City Investigation Service to be issued the second indictment concerning obstruction of justice by rejecting 6 prosecutor's requests to authorize the deployment of special surveillance equipment during an investigation against Orlin Todorov, former head of Veliko Tarnovo's regional anti-mafia unit.

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