Regarding the "Petrohan" case, Minister Emil Dechev stated that none of the investigating police officers have been dismissed. "The people who started working on the cases in Petrohan and Okolchitsa have been the same from the very beginning to the present," said Dechev.
He specified that he had only transferred the director of the "National Police" General Directorate, Zahari Vaskov, because he had not provided him with complete information about the then Secretary General Miroslav Rashkov.
"The reason is that he did not tell me the whole truth," the Minister of the Interior pointed out. According to him, it is precisely the trust between the leadership that is key: “In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is extremely important to have trust in the people you work with.“
Dechev also stated that he has limited information on the investigation, since the materials have been provided to the members of parliament, but not to him.
“The supervising prosecutors, they decided that they could give all 240 deputies to familiarize themselves with the entire pre-trial proceedings. They have all received copies of these proceedings. I have not been provided with such copies. In practice, I know far less than these 240 deputies who have received copies of the two pre-trial proceedings“, he said.
The minister also commented on allegations of a fire on March 12 in the Petrokhan region, emphasizing that this is the first time he has heard of such a case.
“This is the first time I have heard of this information. I will immediately check whether there was such a fire. I will request such information. It is possible that this is just a rumor. It should be borne in mind that before March 12, many inspections were carried out. If a fire was set on March 12 to hide traces, it does not seem very logical to me, because at least several inspections of the crime scene were probably made. Starting a fire on March 12 seems too late to me“, said Dechev.
“At this stage, I know from the press conferences that there is no information about a seventh person hiding somewhere, everything remains within the six, at least that is what is known from the press conferences. The motive is difficult to establish, since on the one hand we have an allegation of a will made during Kalushev's lifetime to the two young men, for whom it is alleged that they were probably killed," Dechev added on the topic of the "Petrohan" case.
Regarding the changes at the top of the Ministry of Interior, the Minister of Interior stated that they are being made according to clear criteria and rejected the allegations that President Rumen Radev has influence on personnel decisions.
“The criteria are integrity and professionalism. "Integrity and professionalism are these criteria," he emphasized.
According to him, the selection of regional directors is made after discussion with his team and based on information from various structures in the ministry.
Dechev categorically denied that the head of state interfered in the process: "I have only seen President Radev twice, and that was many years ago at public events, never in private, I do not have his phone number, so this is frivolous."
Regarding the upcoming elections, the minister assured that the Ministry of Interior will work to limit vote buying. “I want all employees of the Ministry of Interior to guarantee free, fair, democratic and lawful elections with a minimum of electoral violations“, he said.
According to him, the institutions already have information about the risky sections and about the people who traditionally participate in such schemes and the people there vote in a very dubious way.
“These people are not seasonal workers. They do not work once every four years… people from this contingent know each other“, the minister pointed out and added that prevention is an important part of the police's work: “Prevention is something very strong and there is nothing wrong with talking to these people.“