site.btaState Focuses on Smearing Victims, Not Finding Killers in Petrohan Case, Nikolay Denkov Says

The reaction of the official state institutions to the murders in Petrohan reveals a coordinated effort to conceal facts through the spread of rumours and insinuations, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Co-Floor Leader Nikolay Denkov said in a Facebook post Friday. His comment came four days after the bodies of three men were found in a lodge near the Petrohan Pass, and the lodge had been set on fire. 

The authorities said that the investigation is at an early stage and little is known, but speculations have gone wild about what the three men were engaged in, a non-governmental organization they belong to, possible connections to trafficking of drugs or migrants, a pedophile ring, a sect, etc. Some have been ushered by the authorities. 

In Denkov's words, spreading speculations "is done with brutal disrespect for the memory of the victims and the grief of their loved ones". "The unlawful chief prosecutor is not interested in the murderers and is concerned that the victims' actions were not pleasing to God. In complete synchrony with the prosecution, the State Agency for National Security cites a single tipoff to speak of pedophilia, sectarianism, and paramilitary structures, filed against the victims two years ago - without explaining why the report was never investigated," the MP commented.

Both acting Prosecutor Borislav Sarafov and State Agency for National Security (SANS) Director Denyo Denev spoke to the press together saying that the Petrohan-based NGO has been probed two years ago on a tipoff "from a citizen" and there were reasons to believe that a criminal offence had been committed but the parents of the child mentioned in the tipoff boycotted the investigation. The alert "contained allegations about sexual abuse of minors, paramilitary structures using the said lodge and operating as a sect in deviation from the common religious views," said Denev.

The use of "unlawful Prosecutor General" by Denkov refers to the fact that the legitimacy of Sarafov is questioned by politicians and magistrates as his stint has gone past a six-month limit for the tenure of an acting chief prosecutor. The matter is being considered by the Constitutional Court.

Denkov also commented remarks on the Petrohan case by outgoing Interior Minister Daniel Mitov. "The outgoing Minister of the Interior wakes up four days later to condemn the activities of the murder victims - the killers are of no importance to him."

Denkov further said, "amid the fog of conspiracy theories and the smearing of the victims, There Is Such a People, Vazrazhdane and other crutches of GERB and MRF have been activated to pin CC-DB to the case".

While saying that those were mafia-style executions, There Is Such a People leader Slavi Trifonov pointed a finger for the murder case at former Environment Minister Borislav Sandov (affiliated with CC-DB during his tenure) and Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev, the former for signing a cooperation agreement with the Petrohan Lodge organization and the latter for making personal donations to it.