Court Released Police Chief Detained for Alleged Involvement in Telephone Fraud

Due to the lack of sufficient evidence to prove commitment of crime, the court in Bulgaria’s second largest city of Plovdiv ruled on 19^th of October to release the police chief who was accused of taking bribes from telephone fraudsters.

A week ago, the Deputy Chief of the Third Police station in Plovdiv, Stoyan Pavlov, was detained after a person arrested for telephone fraud testified that he had given the policeman 300 BGN.

According to the prosecutor, the police chief accepted 300 BGN, hidden in a cigarette box, in front of the building of the police station. The money was given by two men, one of whom was already a defendant in a telephone fraud case. The other man was acting as a liaison between the fraudster and the policeman.

Police Chief Pavlov met with the so-called mules twice, as evidenced by not very clear records from the security cameras of the police station. According to the Prosecutor's Office, he did nothing, even though he knew about the telephone fraud. However, Pavlov's two lawyers explained that the reason for the meeting was a car sale. They categorically denied that Pavlov took money from the intermediaries. Appellate judges agreed that there was not enough evidence of bribery but indicated that the prosecution could be different. So they overturned the decision of the district court and released the arrested policeman.

Krasimir Eldarov, the lawyer of the the accused said that those who made joint briefings in Plovdiv and blamed their colleague without any evidence should apologise.

The accused policeman was listening to the court’s decision in tears and and said the truth had come out.