site.btaIn New York, Prosecutor General Discusses with Representatives of Jewish Organizations Combat against Anti-Semitism

Bulgarian Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev and the chair of the Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria, Vladimir Nikolov, met in New York with representatives of major Jewish organizations in the US: the American Zionist Movement, the American Jewish Committee, the World Jewish Congress, B'nai B'rith International, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said the Bulgarian Prosecution Service Tuesday. Combatting anti-semitism was high on the agenda of the meeting held on the initiative on Michael Laufer, Board Chair of the National Zionist Movement.

The prosecution service quotes the organization's Executive Director, Herbert Block, as saying that the invitation to Geshev resulted from the first position of the organization he heads and himself "for countering hate crimes, stopping hate language and combatting all attempts at anti-democratic acts that threaten the security and freedom of expression of Bulgarian people". 

The Bulgarian Prosecutor General said that Bulgarian people traditionally show empathy for the Jewish community and any acts of anti-Semitism are incidental rather than a trend.

The head of the Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria, Vladimir Nikolov, said that Bulgaria needs to change its Penal Code if it wants to achieve better results in criminal prosecution of hate crimes.

The two sides discuss the case of the Sarafovo bombing: a terrorist act in 2012 that killed five Israeli people and a Bulgarian man. Geshev told the hosts that the two bombers received prison sentences in their absence.

Nikolov presented an initiative of the Association of Prosecutors and the Chamber of Investigators in Bulgaria for building a memorial in memory of the lawyers who helped the rescue of Bulgarian Jews from deportation to the Nazi death camps during WWII. The monument is expected to be unveiled in late 2023 and Geshev and Nikolov invited the representatives of American Jewish organizations to attend the opening.

"The representatives of the largest American Jewish organizations expressed firm support for Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev after the May 1 assault against him," the prosecution service also says.

On May 1, a bomb went off near the motorcade of Ivan Geshev on a road from the southern town of Samokov to Sofia. The explosion did not hurt anybody and caused only minor damage to the Prosecutor General's car but the Investigative Service head said that it was meant to kill.