site.btaInterior Minister Dismisses Allegations that MRF - New Beginning's Peevski Visited Ministry Wednesday as "Disgusting Lie"

Speaking to reporters in Parliament on Thursday, Interior Minister Daniel Mitov dismissed allegations that Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski visited the Interior Ministry on Wednesday as a ‘disgusting lie’. The allegations were made earlier in the day by Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) MP Venko Sabrutev during an interview with NovaTV. 

“The Interior Ministry has CCTV cameras and registration requirements. Peevski was not at the Interior Ministry yesterday,” Mitov said, adding that he had not spoken to Peevski. The Interior Minster accused CC-DB of spreading lies, saying that they had disrupted pre-trial proceedings in a smuggling case in Plovdiv “with their inappropriate reactions and false information”. “I am starting to suspect that they are working for some of the criminal groups that are currently fighting one another,” Minister Mitov said without naming specific groups.

On April 2, tensions between Minister Daniel Mitov and the opposition CC-DB coalition flared up over an alleged attempt by anti-mafia police chiefs to abort an ongoing operation against an illegal cigarette ring and tip off the offenders of the impending arrests. Rank-and-file officers defied the order and went ahead with the raid, risking their careers. That led to a haul of contraband cigarettes worth BGN 8 million, according to the BOEC civic movement which published a video and screenshots of a WhatsApp chat purportedly between the police officers and their superiors.

Commenting on the Plovdiv case on Thursday, Mitov said that he provided all the details the day before. He added that the police officers who uncovered the illegal cigarette ring had filed a report last year and pre-trial proceedings had been initiated. The officers had been questioned as witnesses, Mitov said, noting that summoning them for a hearing in Parliament’s plenary hall could “get them in trouble”. “I will not be the minister who puts these police officers in trouble,” Mitov said. “I have not stopped anyone, and I will not stop them if they want to come forward and speak,” he added.

Asked whether it bothers him to be part of a Cabinet that relies on support from Peevski's MRF – New Beginning, Mitov said that “we cannot force anyone to support or not to support the Cabinet”. “No support is sought from Peevski,” he added. “What the government needs to achieve is to get Bulgaria into the euro area, to overcome four years of senseless political vacuum and lack of direction of previous administrations”.