Sun, Nov 22 2009
In a surprise move, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov reinstated former deputy director of the Razgrad police, Todor Dimov, on February 4.
Dimov had been dismissed from his post in connection with the case against alleged drug trafficker, Montenegrin-born Budimir Kujovic who was issued with a Bulgarian passport despite a 10 year-ban on him entering the country.
Dimov had accused former Chief secretary of the Interior Ministry Iliya Iliev of signing off on the operation in which the passport was issued. He said there was an "umbrella" within the police and Interior Ministry structures to protect narcotics production in Bulgaria and questioned the interests that Chief secretary of the Interior Ministry Valentin Petrov had in the Kujovic case.
When army regional prosecutor Spas Iliev, at the request of Petrov, interviewed Dimov, he denied categorically to have had any "data or evidence, which would point to violations or crimes committed by police functionaries." The row had been "a matter of interpretation by the entire journalistic profession," Spas Iliev said on January 25.
On February 4, Roumen Petkov personally handed Dimov the decree to reinstate him, though at a demoted position. For one year, the former deputy director of the Razgrad police would be chief of a crime fighting unit, mediapool.bg said.
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