site.btaMissing Former SANS Head Petko Sertov Was at Athens Hotel for Two Days, Interior Ministry Says

Missing Former SANS Head Petko
Sertov Was at Athens Hotel
for Two Days, Interior Ministry Says


Sofia, December 23 (BTA) - The missing former head of the State
Agency for National Security (SANS), Petko Sertov, stayed at a
hotel in Athens for two days, said the Interior Ministry's Chief
Secretary Svetlozar Lazarov on Tuesday.

Sertov has been on the national wanted list since noon on
December 6 after he went missing on December 5 around 6 p.m.

He checked into a hotel in the Greek capital on December 20 and
left two days later. The Greek police went to the hotel a little
after Sertov had left and was unable to establish contact with
him. The car with which Sertov left Bulgaria, however, could not
be found anywhere in the vicinity. Sertov's whereabouts remain
unknown. According to the information which the Bulgarian and
Greek police have, Sertov dined at the hotel's restaurant,
walked around seemingly undisturbed and engaged in conversations
in Greek and English.

Lazarov urged Sertov to identify himself in any police station
across the EU with his ID, so that the search for him can be
called off and the authorities can stop digging in his personal
life. The Chief Secretary recalled that even if Sertov's wife
asks for the search to be called off, this can not happen until
his whereabouts and identity are established.

The police has no information that Sertov has committed a crime
or become the victim of such. Lazarov does not dismiss the
possibility that Sertov is unaware that the police in two
countries is searching for him.

Petko Sertov was the first chairman of SANS after the agency was
set
up and served at the post from January 1, 2008 to the summer of
2009. He then headed the Centre for Prevention and Counteraction
of Corruption and Organized Crime with the Council of Ministers
until March 2013. LI/MY

/МЙ/