site.btaHunger Striker Placed under Constant Health Monitoring

Sofia, July 6 (BTA) - At the request of National Assembly Chairperson Tsveta Karayancheva, the Lozenets University Hospital on Friday provided an ambulance and a doctor to watch over the health of civic activist and former anti-Communist dissident Nikolai "Barefoot" Kolev, who has been fasting for 25 days to protest against corruption in the road transport administration.

On Thursday, Kolev and a group of supporters chained themselves up near the entrance to the National Assembly to draw attention to the man's ongoing hunger strike. On Friday, Kolev was seen near the National Assembly again.

Karayancheva talked with Lozenets University Hospital Director Lyubomir Spassov. Kolev had yet another medical checkup and remains under health monitoring.

Meanwhile, Vihren Mihailov, a member of a committee supporting Kolev's protest, told a BTA-hosted news conference: "We know of employees who have witnessed a scheme for selling drivers' licences to illiterate people, where each client pays between 1,000 and 2,000 euro." Another member of the committee, Manol Glishev, said Kolev's life is in danger as he has fasted for so many days against "the indifference towards corruption in the road transport administration."

Groups of supporters of Kolev have been formed in several towns.

Kolev is adamant that he will not stop his hunger strike unless Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski resigns for failing to address corruption in his department despite numerous alerts Kolev has sent. Moskovski has commented that the current driving tests system has proven to be secure, and the alerts he received from Kolev were about an earlier period when the situation was different. President Rumen Radev has urged Kolev to end his hunger strike. Addressing Kolev in a Facebook post, the President said: "The fight against corruption [...] calls for civic mobilization and honesty, and you have set an example for that."

Kolev has a long history of hunger strikes, starting in the 1990s when he fasted against the Communist regime. They made him a household name at the dawn of democracy in Bulgaria.