Caretaker cabinet proposed to President Radev to issue a decree to dismiss the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior

Bulgaria's Council of Ministers proposed to President Rumen Radev to issue a decree to terminate the powers of Chief Commissioner Zhivko Kotsev as Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior and his release from office, the Government Information Service reported on April 9.

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The proposal of the caretaker cabinet comes several days after a scandal surrounding the Bulgarian Customs Agency Director, Petya Bankova, who was arrested on charges of involvement in a smuggling crime group.

Discrediting materials about the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Zhivko Kotsev, started to be leaked to the media, including a number of picture showing him with a person charged in the same investigation. The evidence presented to the court in order to keep Head of the Customs Agency, Petya Bankova, in custody alleged that she, the Chief Secretary and the person from the photo had met.

Kotsev took sick leave on Monday and it was reported on April 9 that he had been hospitalised because of deteriorated health.

The Ministry of Interior’s Chief Secretary resigned on Thursday last week but shortly after that, on April 5, Friday, withdrew his resignation. In a briefing by the then Prime Minister, Nikolai Denkov, Zhivkov said he acted under enormous psychological and moral pressure. According to Denkov, the pressure was exerted by the Minister of the Interior, Kalin Stoyanov and by "very high-ranking persons from the Prosecutor's office".

Then Kotsev's name came to the limelight in relation to the customs scandal and it became clear that he had met two of the accused - the Head of the Customs Agency, Petya Bankova and Stefan Dimitrov.