A spate of detentions of alleged criminals result in few meaningful prosecutions

Issue 45-46, June-July 2010

by Anthony Georgieff; photography by BTA

Under Boyko Borisov and his Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, the Bulgarian public has become used to almost daily police operations designed to reassure that the government is doing something meaningful to thwart corruption and organised crime. Bearing exotic code names such as "The Impudent," "The Crocodiles," "The VAT-ers," and "The Magistrates," these early-morning police raids are filmed by a team of Interior Ministry cameramen and then relayed to the major TV stations, which willingly broadcast them. The footage does look spectacular on prime time TV – and has prompted some unusual reactions, such as the American ambassador, followed by his EU peers, publicly applauding the Bulgarian government for what it was doing to combat crime.

However, few of these arrests have resulted in any credible prosecutions, with the overwhelming majority of the detainees being released within a day or so for lack of evidence or procedural wrongdoing.

Significantly, the general public has felt little if any improvement in the overall corruption picture, leading senior public figures to conclude that what Boyko Borisov and his lieutenants are doing is more of a stage act designed to boost his own popularity, rather than a well thought-out and professional police operation to tackle organised crime.

Commenting on rumours that Boyko Borisov is targeting some criminal gangs while protecting others, Jürgen Roth, the German investigative journalist, confirms that it "does look that way." Speaking on the Deutsche Welle, Roth said: "Many of these operations are just for show. Ostensibly, there is legislation against organised crime and corruption but of what use is it if it isn't applied properly? What is the use of the many operations against the criminal structures in the country if it remains unclear whether those charged will be tried according to the rules?... In Bulgaria today there are huge criminal groupings that no one has touched at all."

Roth, who has been monitoring the situation in Bulgaria for years, has brought upon himself the wrath of many Bulgarian politicians and "entrepreneurs," who say his claims are unfounded. He is currently being sued for libel by Rumen Petkov, the former Bulgarian Socialist Party interior minister, but refused to appear in a Bulgarian court earlier this year, citing fears for his own safety in Bulgaria.

Tatyana Doncheva, a prominent former MP who has become famous for her outspokenness, put it even more bluntly: "It's one gangster group fighting another."

Commenting on the veracity of the Interior Ministry video clips, Nikolay Radulov, a senior cadre of that ministry under the 1990's reformist government of Ivan Kostov, said in some instances the footage appeared to be cinematography rather than documentary. Radulov told Mediapool that in some cases the events appeared to have been staged in order to make them more spectacular.