site.btaFormer Intelligence Service Head Gen. Kirov Sentenced to 10 Years Imprisonment

Former Intelligence Service Head Gen. Kirov Sentenced to 10 Years Imprisonment

Sofia, August 7 (BTA) - Former National Intelligence Service
(NIS) director Gen. Kircho Kirov was sentenced by a military
court-martial to ten years imprisonment and forfeiture of half
of his property.

Kirov was put on trial for embezzling close to five million
leva. According to the prosecution, Kirov had issued over 1,000
official financial documents with the purpose of embezzling the
large sum of money.

The former intelligence service head is banned from taking
certain state positions for a few years. The sentence can be
appealed before the Military Appellate Court within 15 days.

Kirov told BTA that he trusts in the Bulgarian justice system,
regardless of this groundless sentence, adding that he will
appeal it.
 
He described the trial as politically motivated. "As the trial
is secret and the sittings were held behind closed doors, I did
not have the chance to defend myself publicly," Kirov said.

According to Kirov, the trial against him is politically
motivated with the task to sentence high-profile persons, such
as himself. He added that this is happening in a peculiar
political environment in Bulgaria, and probably abroad.

Answering a question about whether the missing money was
designated for agents, Kirov said that there are matters in the
intelligence sector, which can not and should not be made
public. He voiced regret over the fact that this trial deals a
destructive blow to the Bulgarian intelligence service. 

Asked who is behind the trial against him, Kirov said it was the
 NIS's current leadership, which had ordered it back in 2012,
when he was released from his post as the service's director. He
 described it as politically motivated and directed against
former President Georgi Purvanov, who back then was a rival of
Sergei Stanishev in the fight for the Bulgarian Socialist
Party's chairmanship. Kirov supposed that he might have also
been a target, as his plans to enter politics were known. The
political nature of this trial was proven by the prosecution's
exceptionally politicized plea during its last days, Kirov said,
 adding that he will appeal the sentence.