site.btaInterior Ministry on Identity Cards, Traffic Accident Involving President's Father

112 HOME AFFAIRS - IDENTITY CARDS - HARMANLI ACCIDENT

Interior Ministry on Identity Cards,
Traffic Accident Involving
President's Father


Sofia, September 7 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Interior Ministry will introduce provisional identity cards for accused parties and defendants who are prohibited from leaving the country, it emerged at a regular monthly news briefing of the Ministry Friday moderated by Deputy Minister Milko Berner.

The Director of the National Police General Directorate, Chief Commissioner Hristo Terziiski, said that because of the heavy cross-border traffic at Bulgaria's border with Greece, the Border Police is using a different system and not always checks the ID cards of people leaving the country but merely examines the documents visually.

The provisional identity cards will have a different outer appearance, which will reduce the risk of mistakes, the Interior Ministry leadership said.

Deputy Interior Minister Krassimir Tsipov said in a "24 Chassa" interview earlier this month that the Government is drafting amendments to the Bulgarian Personal Documents Act on the introduction of provisional ID cards for accused parties and defendants in which a ban on leaving the country will be encrypted. Over the last 15 years, more than 500 convicted offenders have escaped abroad. In 20 years, the authorities have lost track of over 20,000 tax evaders, alimony dodgers and criminal and civil case witnesses.

In connection with an August 17 traffic accident at a roundabout in Harmanli (South Central Bulgaria) involving President Rumen Radev's father, Georgi Radev, Chief Inspector Rossen Rapchev of the Traffic Police explained at Friday's news briefing that both the tricycle driver who was hit by Radev's car and Radev himself committed traffic violations. The only person against whom a written statement of violation was drawn up, however, was the tricycle driver. It has been established so far that the Interior Ministry officers who visited the scene of the accident made a number of mistakes: they did not secure the scene, admitted outsiders near it, including a former mayor of Harmanli, and left the vehicles involved in the crash unwatched.

Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Mladen Marinov, the disciplinary check into the case has been completed. One Interior Ministry officer has been dismissed, and various penalties have been imposed on others. RQ/LG

/СН/