site.btaEmployers' Confederation Demands Prompt Arrests after Recent Murder of Fashion House Owner or Interior Minister's Resignation

Employers' Confederation Demands Prompt Arrests after Recent Murder of Fashion House Owner
or Interior Minister's Resignation

Sofia, January 11 (BTA) - The Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG) has sent an open letter expressing outrage over the murder of the founder of the Agresia fashion house,  Alexander Antov, and the fact that three days later police don't even have a suspect. Addressed to Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov, the letter insists that Antonov's killer should be identified and detained immediately - or else the Interior Minister should resign.

CEIBG asks "why the public purse wastes over 1,000 million leva (...) for those [law-enforcement] institutions when every one of us can be shot like a dog because someone bears a grudge, wants to take our money or our whole business."

The open letter senders recall that at the end of last year, the business community supported a declared intention of the government to reform the Interior Ministry and sector security, but so far nothing has happened, and murder and terror in the streets of Bulgaria continue.

CEIBG say that businesses pay for security twice: "once 1,000 million leva for silent observers and registrars of crimes and their leadership" and once again for "an army of [private] security guards to protect the economy of Bulgaria and the people who move it forward".

Meanwhile, Interior Ministry Chief Commissioner Georgi Arabadzhiev said that Antov's murder is definitely unrelated with that of another businessman, Vesselin Stoimenov, several days previously. He also said that some progress has been made on both cases and that the investigators have narrowed down the scope of suspects.