On May 19th, Bulgaria’s chief of police, Veselin Petrov, tabled his resignation for unknown reasons. According to the Bulgarian News Network, it is unclear whether if the newly appointed Interior Minister, Mikhail Mikov, will accept Petrov’s resignation. I imagine this has to do with the ever widening scandal regarding the Bulgarian Interior Ministry’s involvement with organized crime. It seems that Bulgarian law enforcement officials are deeply involved with organized crime, and it is no telling just how many figures will fall due to the exposure of their illicit activities.
It would appear, however, that they will face light legal consequences, if any. The Sofia Echo reported today that the former chief of Sofia’s traffic police, IliŠ° Iliev, received only a suspended sentence from a Military Court of Appeal. Iliev was found guilty of “malfeasance in office” in his involvement of letting eleven intoxicated motorists escape prosecution during the first half of 2006. Iliev was dismissed from office in August of 2006, but in light of this suspended sentence, it looks as if his dismissal will be the only real consequence of his actions. Tomi Tomov, the head of the administrative service department of the traffic police in Sofia was also dismissed due to the scandal. Corruption appears to be a family business for Iliev, as his son, Nestor Nestorov, is reputed to run an organized crime group. The Nestorov group apparantly dealt in tax evasion and fake documentation, allegedly helping motorists register their vehicles by circumventing procedures.
While one hopes that criminal behavior does not go unpunished, at least the worst offenders are being shunted out of Bulgarian office posts. The only hope is that they will not be replaced with similarly corrupt officials. It may take a while to get Bulgarian corruption under control, but eventually the new transparency in Bulgarian government should get things into more normal parameters.
