Those who think that they will prevent themselves from being left out of parliament by shouting about "pedophilia" against PP-DB are most likely mistaken. Someday the truth about the instrumentalization of services against the opposition will shine.
The tragedy in "Petrohan" became the occasion for an organized political action against PP-DB, which threatens to become a central election theme. ITN, "Vazrazhdane", "Novo nachlaso" openly, and GERB more aside and passively, blame PP-DB for the case, with accusations ranging from supporting criminals to pedophilia and complicity in murder. The materials that "leak" from the investigation and the prosecutor's office have been selected in such a way as to support such suggestions.
The size of the campaign and the monstrosity of the accusations
As has happened before other parliamentary elections, now we have again the instrumentalization of investigative bodies and services for political purposes, and again against the PP-DB. This is not news. What is new is the size of the campaign and the monstrosity of the accusations, which seem to be copied from the manuals of the KGB and Gestapo. At the same time, the versions that are being circulated are so sewn with white threads that they self-disintegrate and self-contradict. And it would not be surprising if this campaign at some point turns against its sponsors and perpetrators and leads to huge protests against mafia methods used by state services in order to please political patrons.
As in any manipulative campaign, in the case of "Petrokhan" There is a disturbing grain of truth alongside the dominant chaff. These are the accusations of pedophilia against one of the deceased - Ivaylo Kalushev. There is testimony against him from a student of his, which has been known to the National Security Agency and other institutions since 2022. Suspicions of pedophilia are a serious problem in themselves. Kalushev is already dead and cannot defend his name. The enormous burden falls on the closest circle of this group to shed light, as far as there is information, on this issue. Some of these relatives are also dead; others - including the children's parents - have spoken out and given their point of view. The state, with its investigation, is obliged to do everything possible to clarify these issues, while also taking into account the enormous personal tragedy of the relatives of the deceased. At the moment, such sensitivity simply does not exist. Whatever comes out of these suspicions of pedophilia, however, it is unacceptable to give children to be raised by strangers without some form of parental and state supervision.
But this real problem does not have political dimensions, as many are trying to suggest. The fact that Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev gave donations to the rangers has nothing to do with the suspicions of pedophilia. The rangers were true and sincere environmentalists, according to everyone who knew them. Their organization was a member of international ranger associations. And they also did useful environmental protection work, apparently cooperating with a number of state institutions. Ivaylo Kalushev did save seven lives in an earlier period, and recently he participated in various joint actions with state authorities, including the capture of a murderer. The charges against the group for being a paramilitary formation also fell apart. Even the weapons and equipment they had were given to the police for training. In general, the attacks on Borislav Sandov for signing a cooperation agreement with the rangers are ridiculous. It is not his job to know whether there are suspicions of pedophilia against them. And there is nothing particularly strange about the fact that the Minister of the Environment has concluded an agreement with a man who is a legend among cavers and other nature lovers. It would be good to have clearer procedures for concluding such agreements from now on.
Why is the focus not on the National Security Agency and the Prosecutor's Office?
At the same time, the "most angry" people from the scandal, for some reason, are not focusing on the National Security Agency and the Prosecutor's Office, who have known about the suspicions of pedophilia for more than three years, but have done nothing effective to remove the child from the group. They have also done nothing to prevent the subsequent tragedy. The easy excuse for the inaction of the services - usual incompetence - is not enough. The strange thing is that probably among the rangers there were also employees of the National Security Agency. The refusal of the head of the service to reveal their names even in a closed session of the National Assembly is an indirect confirmation of this fact.
And here is the interesting turn in the attitude of the services and the prosecutor's office towards the rangers, who at one point turned from collaborators into pedophiles and paramilitaries, and after they had died in a still unclear way. The version of their suicide, which is being circulated as the main and almost the only version, suffers from numerous and obvious problems. At least from the point of view of a layman in criminology - which is the vast majority of us citizens - there are still outstanding questions. The first is that there is no motive for such a mass suicide. Attempts to make it out to be ritualistic and religiously motivated are unconvincing, because nothing in the beliefs of these people explains, let alone justifies, such actions. Neither the investigators nor anyone else has presented any at least plausible explanation in this direction.
Secondly, the evidence of suicide that was shown (conversations, parts of video recordings) is ambiguous and does not actually prove a single version. The fact is that no DNA traces from other people were found and that the wounds of the murdered were in areas that they could reach (the head). But this is not enough to rule out the hypothesis of murder. At least there was another person at the crime scene - the one who found them first and reported the murder. Mysteriously, he gives testimony in which he talks about numerous shell casings scattered as if after a shootout, and then disappears. It is not excluded that he is one of the DANS employees who, according to the mayor of Ginzi, were the first at the crime scene. And DANS denied that they were there.
Thirdly, it is strange that people who commit suicide first burn their bodies and tear and take off their clothes.
All this may have an explanation from professional criminologists, which is compatible with the version of the murder of a repentant group in which there were pedophile practices. Or a group that is afraid of its public exposure. But the suicide is in contradiction with the profiles of these people and their religious beliefs, following from the claim about the "sect". And the professionals have not given their final answer and have not formally rejected the other versions, although the leading one remains suicide.
Based on all this, it must be said that the "Petrokhan" case is being used for political propaganda and manipulation, without it having yet been resolved in any convincing way. The question marks remain and even grow, and those who inflate the non-existent political connection in principle may find themselves in a very unpicked vineyard. This perhaps explains the absence of Daniel Mitov and Boyko Borisov from the front lines. At some point they will probably come out and say, as in the case of Blagomir Kotsev and his arrest, that they had nothing to do with the whole thing. While at the moment they are probably rubbing their hands contentedly.
At some point the truth about the instrumentalization will come to light
The most worrying thing, however, is that this tragedy will probably be used for changes in a "conservative" direction in legislation and management practices. Some of the things discussed are useful, such as stricter regulation of the names of NGOs, so that we do not end up with "national agencies" and other similar misleading names (which is the practice at the moment). There is also a need to strengthen control over the presence of students in school. But many of the other things are simply dark fantasies about dealing with civil society, which is inconvenient for this or that.
Those who think that they will prevent themselves from being left out of parliament by shouting about "pedophilia" against the opposition are most likely mistaken. There will certainly be people who will "catch" this substitution of topics and realities. There will be people who will not notice the transfer of the problem from the sick head to the healthy one. But at some point the truth about yet another instrumentalization of services and repressive bodies against the opposition will shine again in all its beauty.
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This text expresses the opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and the State News Agency as a whole.