Three charged with hooliganism for emergency stopping of underground train service

Three people have been charged with hooliganism because during the recent protest they pressed the public emergency stop button in one of the stations of the underground and temporarily stopped the train service.

Charges for hooliganism were pressed on July 22 against Elenko Bozhkov, a former MP from the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party and member of the Strategic Council of the President, for stopping the underground train service. He was interviewed at Sofia first police station.

On July 21, two other people were charged for hooliganism because of the incident in the underground: Mincho Spasov, a former MP for Simeon Saxe-Coburg’s NMSII party and the 29 year old Svetoslav Traikov, who has participated in the organisation of the recent protests.

At a briefing on July 21of Sofia Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, the regional Prosecutor’s office and Sofia Metropilitan, the operator of the metro system, Chief Police Commissioner Georgi Hadzhiev said the underground stations are part of the strategic infrastructure. One of the trains remained in the tunnel when the power supply for the train service was stopped during the incident.

The head of the underground operator “Sofia Metropolitan”, eng. Stoyan Bratoev, said that the electricity supply can be stopped with 4 buttons at a station, but it can be done only in emergency circumstances and such circumstances did not exist at the time of the incident. Stopping the train service was not the correct thing to do for the passengers. Their safety should not be threatened. The underground is not a toy, he added.

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On July 20, the underground service in the direction of Mladost residential area was stopped for a short period of time, allegedly after three participants in the protests pressed the public emergency stop button at Sofia University station.