International investigation order issued for the poisoning of Gebrev

An international investigation order for the case of the poisoning of Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev has been issued, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov announced on 12^th of February, 2019. The order was sent to Western countries partner services and the UK. According to the minister, the Ministry of Interior works on all versions. According to the Chairman of the Internal Security Committee in Parliament, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, it is not serious to say that the services are sweeping the Gebrev poisoning case under the carpet. ABCparty said they did not see a link between the poisoning of Sergei Scripal and Emilian Gebrev.

Interior Minister Mladen Marinov announced that immediately after the signal for Emilian Gebrev was received in 2015, pre-trial proceedings were initiated against an unknown perpetrator for attempted murder, and the services started an investigation.

Mladen Marinov, Minister of the Interior: The signal came from the Military Hospital for a person who was in a helpless state. The reasons for his condition were not clear at the time, so we immediately initiated an investigation.

Upon receiving the new information on the Gebrev case, the Prime Minister and the Chief Prosecutor informed our partner services, Marinov said.

Trust has been built between the services of Bulgaria and the UK. They work together, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Deputy Chair of ruling GERB party and Chair of Parliament’s Internal Security and Public Order Committee said.

Tsvetan Tsvetanov: We are worried that a person who participated in the logistics and the implementation of this extremely disgusting act against Scripal was on the territory of the country and this coincided with a period, in which, in fact, there may had been certain actions towards Gebrev.

The Bulgarian authorities have the results of a Finnish laboratory that clearly shows that the drug used against the businessman Emilian Gebrev was not Novichok, said ABC party chair Rumen Petkov and questioned the allegation that the agent nicknamed "Fedotov" participated in an action against Gebrev.

Rumen Petkov, Chair of the ABC party: Any structure, which has some self-respect, would not send the same person in two different countries, it is absurd, and this same person to appear in front of all the cameras of the centre, in the hotel, in the coffe shop.

The former intelligence general Todor Boyadzhiev explained that the action against Scripal may be individual – of the Russian intelligence officers unrelated to the case of Gebrev.

Gen. Todor Boyadzhiev, Former Chief Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior: If Novichok was used on April 24, 2015 and did not give the desired result, i.e. Gebrev and company survived, and it turned out that there were in fact pesticides in the salad they ate, I wonder, which intelligence service, no matter what, would 4 years later, use something that had proven to be ineffective.

Boyadzhiev has no explanation why Emilian Gebrev himself made a connection between his case and the Scripal case.