Lawyer Zornitsa Kostova represents some of the people who suffered from Vasil Mihaylov, also known as the prosecutor's son from Pernik. Mihaylov was detained days ago after long months of searching. According to lawyer Kostova, he managed to successfully hide due to information leaks to him from employees of the General Directorate of the “National Police”, Nova TV reported.
Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev, who met today in Plovdiv with the leadership of the regional directorates in Southern Bulgaria to announce the new priorities in the Ministry of Interior, admitted that there is a leak of information. But not only from the General Directorate of the “National Police”, but also from other structures of the interior ministry to persons who are wanted or who are currently hiding. Demerdzhiev vowed to be uncompromising towards anyone who undermines the authority of the Ministry of Interior.
The Ministry of Interior knows who the people are who helped hide Vasil Mihaylov, said Minister Demerdzhiev. He did not name specific names.
“This person has been monitored daily for more than a month, so we know a large part of the circle of people who assisted him. Everyone who came into the field of view of the employees working on the case will be identified. And those for whom there is no evidence of a crime committed, but who were somehow involved in this activity, will be announced one by one”, said Demerdzhiev.
“People responsible for practices incompatible with police work and ethics will be removed from their posts, and some - from the system“, said Demerdzhiev.
Acting Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior Georgi Kandev also commented on the public allegations of lawyer Kostova.
“I made contact with her and invited her on Friday, in the presence of the director of the Inspectorate and the “Internal Security“ Directorate, to provide all the data she has“, said Kandev. He stressed that the institutions will not accept allegations made only in the media space, without being submitted to the competent authorities for verification.
Minister Demerdzhiev stated that if employees are identified who have assisted wanted persons by leaking information, strict action will follow. “The “Internal Security“ Directorate is working actively. Have no doubt that we will be uncompromising towards anyone who is wearing a uniform and violates the law“, he said.
According to him, procedural actions are already being prepared against some of those involved, while at the same time a full check of all possible complicit persons is being carried out.
According to him, the election cycle is over and the system is already shifting to focus on operational tasks. “Now we will set the priorities that we stated when we took office, and we will create an organization for the local structures to successfully implement them“, Demerdzhiev pointed out.
According to the information from the briefing, the search for the prosecutor's son has lasted more than a month, and data has accumulated in the process on a significant number of potentially involved people.
Regarding the investigation into the assistance of the prosecutor's son, he stated that a wide range of individuals who helped him in hiding are currently being identified. In his words, this involves “quite a few people”, not all of whom are employees of the Ministry of Interior. Part of the collected materials has already been sent to the prosecutor's office, and the remaining individuals are to be identified and publicly announced after the completion of the procedural actions.
The Minister of Interior indicated that a two-stage reform is being prepared in the Ministry of Interior. The first stage will be quick and will include immediate actions on obvious problems in individual structures. The second stage will be longer-term and will be based on a strategic analysis and an overall vision for the development of the ministry. According to him, there are serious difficulties in the system related to duplicate functions, inefficient structures and employees who have reached retirement age but are still working, the total number of whom is significant.
The minister emphasized that a joint analysis has already been carried out by the political and professional leadership and that some of the structures with identified problems will be reorganized without delay.