site.btaInterior Ministry Internal Security Chief Dismissed from Office

The head of the Interior Ministry's Internal Security Directorate, Georgi Georgiev, has been dismissed from office until the disciplinary proceedings initiated against him conclude, the Ministry told BTA on Tuesday.

The Directorate, tasked with investigating violations and crimes committed by Interior Ministry personnel, declined to provide more information about the reasons for the disciplinary proceedings.

Prosecutors raided the Interior Ministry's General Directorate Combating Organized Crime on Monday after the security services alerted them about an Interior Ministry employee having sent information by electronic means to persons linked with Russia, the Bulgarian prosecution service said. Later in the day, the Interior Ministry's Secretary General, Chief Commissioner Zhivko Kotsev, confirmed that an employee of the General Directorate Combating Organized Crime had been detained on suspicion of spying in favour of Russia. The person's actions had been monitored for several months but less than a year, the Secretary General explained.