More Arrests in Bulgaria Targeting Vote-Buying Before the April Elections
A specialized police operation targeting vote buying has led to the arrest of three individuals in the town of Byala Slatina, authorities confirmed
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Bulgarian PM Borisov (middle) might have been a target of the Killers group. He is pictured here during the news conference after special operation Killers. Photo by BGNES
The organized crime group that was busted in police operation “Killers“ had an order to murder Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
The “Killers” received the order for Borisov's assassination about 6-7 months ago, according to a Sunday article of the 24 Chasa Daily, which cites sources from the investigation.
A number of members of the Killers group were arrested on Friday in a special operation of the Bulgarian Interior, including Petar Stoyanov, aka “the Chieftain”, the head of the Bulgarian Sumo Wrestling Federation.
The police believe there is strong evidence that the group carried out the assassination of controversial football club president Yuriy Galev in June 2010 as well as six other murders.
The 24 Chasa Daily claims that a few months ago the US intelligence services warned the Bulgarian intelligence about the order to assassinate Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. His murder was ordered by “a group of disgruntled businessmen”.
During the special news conference that Borisov and Interior Minister Tsvetanov gave on Saturday, there was no mention of any information that the alleged assassins were plotting to kill the PM.
Borisov did point out, however, that the investigation was going to reveal information about many assassinations, which were carried out or were planned to be executed. These assassinations were connected with drugs, prostitution, the logging industry, tourism, among others.
Speaking in a radio interview on Saturday, Interior Minister Tsvetanov declined to comment if the Bulgarian leadership was threatened by assassination plots.
“It is hard for me to comment on this information. These allegations sound very worrying and serious,” declared on Sunday MP Yavor Notev, deputy head of the Parliamentary Legal Committee, from the nationalist party Ataka.
“The plans for a possible assassination of the Prime Minister would go way beyond any existing conflicts in Bulgaria so far. This has to be thoroughly investigated. There have been no political assassinations in Bulgaria in past two decades,” he stated.
MP Notev also commented on the fact that Petar Stoyanov, aka the Chieftain, was an adviser in the Parliamentary Committee on education, youth, and sport by saying that he had certain sport achievements that allowed him to gain this status.
Speaking on the BNR Sunday, Bulgaria's former Interior Minister from the Socialist Party Mihail Mikov declared that the information about a possible plot to kill the Prime Minister was no sensation because such media reports appeared regularly and were never confirmed or disproved.
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