Bulgarian Nationalist Leader Officially Charged with Hooliganism

Siderov appeared at the Sofia City Investigative Service at 11 am in the company of a number of MPs from nationalist party Ataka. Photo by BGNES

Volen Siderov, leader of Bulgarian nationalist party Ataka, has been charged with hooliganism and inflicting light bodily harm on a police officer.

Siderov spent around an hour at the Sofia City Investigative Service, where he was imposed a remand measure of signed promise for appearance.

Siderov's charges refer to the incident in end-January on a Sofia-Varna flight. Siderov verbally assaulted the French Cultural attach?, engaged in a fight with a passenger and allegedly hit a police officer.

The leader of Ataka told journalists that he rejected all accusations and complained of an information leak from the prosecuting authority or the investigative service.

Siderov insisted that he had not been properly summoned to appear at the Sofia City Investigative Service and informed that he was going to testify after his travel fellows, four Ataka MPs, who had been around him at the time of the scandal, were examined on Friday.

He described the pre-trial proceedings as weird, stressing that he had given up his immunity from prosecution on January 22 and he had not been handed a summons yet.

Ataka's leader also drew attention to the fact that the testimony of the air hostess had leaked, possibly from the prosecuting authority or the investigative unit.

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