MoI Chief Secretary: Ministry of Interior checks whether Martin Bozhanov blackmailed Greek businessmen

The Ministry of Interior is checking whether Martin Bozhanov, widely known as the Notary, had blackmailed Greek businessmen. The report was submitted to the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDCOC), but the investigation has been assigned to all structures of the Ministry of Interior.

The involvement of Bozhanov's lawyer Velimir Atanasov in the scheme is also being checked. Ministry of Interior’s Chief Secretary, Zhivko Kotsev, told journalists in Yambol on February 15. He attended the reporting and analysis of the work of the dostrict police directorate last year.

"Greek businessmen, through lawyers hired by them, have referred to the directorate for combatting organized crime. A complaint has been received, it has been examined. It is about a property dispute. An inspection was carried out in 2022. All the materials were sent to the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, as instructions of a certain prosecutor were followed. The allegation is that this file has remained in the Prosecutor's Office, it has not been returned to the GDCOC," Kotsev said.

It is also being clarified whether the murdered Martin Bozhanov, nicknamed The Notary, had cooperated with the Ministry of Interior, the Chief Secretary said.

"We have assigned a probe to verify all these allegations," Kotsev added.

During a hearing before the Supreme Judicial Council’s Judges’ College on Tuesday, journalist and co-founder of the Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation (ACF) Nikolai Staykov said it should be checked whether Martin Bozhanov was an informant or cooperated with the Ministry of Interior. In his words, Bozhanov was parading his specific status.

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The Judges's College of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on February 13 heard acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov and investigative journalist and co-founder of the Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation Nikolay Staykov. The hearing was in connection with information about a private club of Martin Bozhanov, often visited by magistrates.

Martin Bozhanov (nicknamed "The Notary") was killed in Sofia on January 31. The Prosecutor’s Office conducetd searches in the private club “SS", associated with Bozhanov, in the capital's Geo Milev residential area. Various media and computers were seized during the search. The Prosecutor’s Office is checking whether magistrates were members of the club, whether and why they went there. Currently, pre-trial proceedings are ongoing for an organized criminal group, of which Bozhanov was part, established for the purpose of exerting pressure on magistrates, for property fraud and money laundering.

At the meeting of the Judges’ College, acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov said that on February 11 he received reports that two prosecutors from Sofia City Prosecution Office had received threats for their lives. One received a bullet in his mailbox. Another of his colleagues found a cross made of twigs outside the front door of her home. The acting Prosecutor General argued that this was meant as a warning intended to force the prosecutors to tread carefully with their work.

Source: BTA

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