A protest is being held in front of the Courthouse in Sofia in support of the mayor of Varna Blagomir Kotsev, whom the court left in custody. The initiator is the Initiative "Justice for Everyone", and the motto is: "Resistance against the dictatorship! Freedom for Blagomir Kotsev!", informs the Bulgarian National Radio.
The protesters say they want justice for both the mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev, and the former deputy mayor of Sofia, Nikola Barbutov, as well as for the young people who were detained for the beating of the police director in Ruse.
In front of the Courthouse in Sofia are people from the Varna mayor's team. Sofia mayor Vasil Terziev is also here, as well as Kiril Petkov and Asen Vassilev from the PP.
Pavel Popov, acting mayor of Varna, who also participated in the demonstration, said:
"What happened in the courtroom is absolutely scandalous. Unfortunately, we witnessed a mockery of justice, in which the judge acted as a prosecutor and presented arguments that were blatantly incompetent.
We expected Kotsev to be released, because the charges against him are absolutely unfounded. Unfortunately, what happened was to motivate his detention with the fact that he is the mayor. This shows that the whole plot is aimed at removing him from the mayoral post, therefore this is a political process".
Let's fight lawlessness, urged the mayor of Sofia Vasil Terziev and stated that he is not afraid:
"Thank you very much to all of you for being free people. For fighting for your rights, for being intransigent with the atrocities that happen around us every day and that are piling up - the wall of shame will no longer have anything to write on it, because it has become too, too long.
And every time we think we have reached the bottom, it turns out that we have already started digging to the earth's core. I want to ask you one thing - are you afraid? Is there reconciliation, is there retreat?", were the words of the Sofia mayor, with which he addressed the protesters.
After the shouts: "No!", Terziev added: "So we are fine, because they can't put all of us in prison".
During the protest, signatures are being collected against the management of 11 acres of property near the "Iskar" dam by the Russian Federation. So far, 2,000 signatures have been collected, the organizers said.