Caretaker Minister of Interior: Last Night I Was Informed by the Directorate for Combating Organised Crime that the Prosecutor's Office Ordered Preliminary Check Against Me

Last night I was informed by the leadership of the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime that the Prosecutor's Office has ordered a preliminary check against me, caretaker Minister of Interior, Emil Dechev, said in an interview with Bulgarian National Radio on February 24. He assured that he is ready to provide full co-operation to colleagues from the anti-organised crime directorate.

“We are witnessing the panicked moves of a system that senses its end,” the minister added.

“A script has appeared in the Prosecutor's Office from the chief scriptwriters of the former show of Slavi Trifonov, in the form of a complaint. Instead of seeking the objective truth in the ‘Petrohan–Okolchitsa’ case, in the attack on the mayor of Bistritsa, and in all the unsolved and uninvestigated crimes in the country, the prosecution has launched a panick-driven attack against me as Interior Minister,” Dechev added.

The caretaker minister denied that any pressure had been exerted on the investigations into the “Petrohan” and “Okolchitsa” cases.

“It is true that I met a colleague working on the Petrohan case. The only reason was to familiarise myself with it as quickly as possible. We had a coffee and then went our separate ways. There are people who want to make something spectacular out of this case. As head of the ministry, I have the right to familiarise myself with everything happening in the Ministry of Interior at any time. We have no days off. My task is to get up to speed as quickly as possible so that I can provide full support to colleagues.”

• Caretaker Cabinet Has Proposed to the President that the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior Be Dismissed

Yesterday, after the cabinet proposed replacing the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Dechev called on journalists to help locate his deputy, Yavor Serafimov.

“The Deputy Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry disappeared yesterday. He did not inform me officially, nor did any other official from the ministry pass on information that he was in hospital,” he explained.

• The Caretaker Minister of Interior Requested the Resignation of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior, Miroslav Rashkov

Emil Dechev explained that he had also spoken to the Chief Secretary.

"The conversation was almost entirely about the reasons that are in my proposal to issue a decree to release him. What I told him was related to the poor way the police worked in guarding the 26 November rally, when they failed to successfully isolate the provocateurs. This endangered the lives and health of both peaceful demonstrators and the police themselves and led to arson attacks.

In the Petrohan case, we saw neither the Chief Secretary nor the Deputy explain what the police were doing or, at least in general terms, what had happened. I am still not fully familiar with what occurred. I have the impression that everything possible is being done to prevent me from learning what happened and how the work was carried out.”

From today, the political cabinet of the Ministry of Interior will be joined by three new deputy ministers — Ivan Anchev, Kaloyan Kaloyanov and Kaloyan Miltenov, Dechev announced.

Georgi Kandev will begin work today as acting Deputy Chief Secretary, the minister added.

“I will not propose a permanent Chief Secretary," Dechev said.

“Regarding the regional police directors, we will do everything possible to ensure that people are in place who would not allow a second annulment of the forthcoming elections due to electoral manipulation, vote-buying or controlled voting. We will use information on high-risk polling stations. Where there have been problems, replacements are likely,” he added.