site.btaHead of Sofia's Interior Ministry Directorate: Police Acted Routinely When They Detained Journalist Dimitar Stoyanov

The police acted in a completely routine way in the case in which journalist Dimitar Stoyanov was detained for hooliganism and making threat with a firearm, the Head of the Regional Directorate of the Interior Ministry in Sofia, Lyubomir Nikolov, told reporters on Wednesday. Nikolov added that the procedure in situations like that is always the same - offenders are detained and reported to a prosecutor’s office, no matter who they are.

Nikolov explained that a report of a conflict between two men in Sofia’s Hadzhi Dimitar district was filed around 6 p.m. (on Monday). The person who filed the report was a 40-year-old employee of the central department of the National Revenue Agency, who complained he had been threatened with a firearm and feared for his life. It was subsequently established that Stoyanov was the potential person who carried out the threat. The police asked him for an explanation, but he said he would go to Sofia’s Fifth Police Department after undergoing a medical examination at the Pirogov emergency hospital. As this took some time, a check was made at the hospital, which found that Stoyanov had not turned up for an examination. After police intervention, he was found and detained.

The circumstances surrounding the conflict are to be clarified within the pre-trial proceedings initiated.

Plamen Maksimov, Head of the Motor Vehicle Crime Sector at Sofia’s Regional Directorate of the Interior, said that two witnesses have been questioned so far. "There have been no reports of aggression by the NRA officer," Maksimov said, adding that Stoyanov has a permit for the firearm he had with him.