site.btaEx-Intelligence Chief Receives Two-Year Conditional Sentence

Sofia, February 5 (BTA) - The Sofia City Court gave former National Intelligence Service director Kircho Kirov a two-year conditional sentence with a four-year probation period.

The prosecution claimed that Kirov divulged a state secret during a televised interview in 2014 in which he spoke about the case of a Bulgarian national arrested in Iran for trafficking illicit drugs.

Kirov said he was not surprised by the sentence. He repeated his earlier assertion that nothing of what he discussed in the interview was a state secret. He said all lawsuits against him have been politically motivated and this is part of a personal war being waged by the current intelligence chief.

The sentence is appealable.