Ex Rector of Medical University Accused of Illegal Admission of Foreign Students

The former Rector of the Medical University in Sofia Prof. Vanyo Mitev is accused of being the leader of a criminal group for illegal admission of foreign students to the university. This was confirmed by the spokesperson of the Chief Prosecutor, Rumyana Arnaudova, for BNT on 29^th of January.

Several days ago, following an operation by the Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime, six people were charged with involvement in a criminal group for false documents though which foreign students were admitted at the medical university. The idea was that they receive permanent residency in an EU country.

The persons under investigation are mainly of Arab origin. It was found that some of them did not even speak English. The most serious indication that something was wrong was the fact that the majority of these students were not found at the addresses that appear in their official documents, i.e. probably, these are absolutely fake students who use this ring to enter the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. By becoming regular full-time students, they are granted temporary status on the territory of the EU, allowing them to move freely across the EU. This ring is possible to be used for the purposes of terrorist threat and for concealed illegal trafficking of migrants. The investigation is on-going, the spokesperson said.

She added that one of the suspects threatened the investigative team with the words "You will cry with bloody tears".The Rector of the Medical University in Sofia Prof. Vanyo Mitev is accused of being the leader of a criminal group for illegal admission of foreign students to the university. This was confirmed by the spokesperson of the Chief Prosecutor, Rumyana Arnaudova, for BNT on 29^th of January.

Several days ago, following an operation by the Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime, six people were charged with involvement in a criminal group for false documents though which foreign students were admitted at the medical university. The idea was that they receive permanent residency in an EU country.

The persons under investigation are mainly of Arab origin. It was found that some of them did not even speak English. The most serious indication that something was wrong was the fact that the majority of these students were not found at the addresses that appear in their official documents, i.e. probably, these are absolutely fake students who use this ring to enter the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. By becoming regular full-time students, they are granted temporary status on the territory of the EU, allowing them to move freely across the EU. This ring is possible to be used for the purposes of terrorist threat and for concealed illegal trafficking of migrants. The investigation is on-going, the spokesperson said.

She added that one of the suspects threatened the investigative team with the words "You will cry with bloody tears".

According to the Prosecutor's Office, the organised criminal group operated between 2015 and 2017. Through an intermediary firm, young people have been recruited under the pretext of learning English. They were then enrolled at the university though false papers, and their exams were arranged by officials at the Medical University. The aim was to give the students the status of permanent residents in an EU country.