site.btaDeputy Interior Minister Todorov Says Petrohan Investigation Ongoing

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Deputy Interior Minister Toni Todorov said that the authorities continue to work on the Petrohan case and that, in his words, once everything is completed, the public will learn what actually happened.

On February 2, three men were found shot dead in a privately owned lodge near Petrohan Pass in the Western Balkan Range. On February 8, two men and a 15-year-old boy, all of whom had occupied the lodge, were found dead with gunshot wounds in a camper van in a hard-to-reach mountain area on Okolchitsa Peak.

“As the [Interior Ministry’s] political leadership, we rely entirely on and have full confidence in the professionals who are working on this every day,” Todorov said.

“There is investigative secrecy, and there are things that cannot be made public at this stage. This is an extremely difficult case to investigate, because there are many possible versions. Each of them has to be examined very thoroughly in order to reach a result that satisfies everyone and reveals the objective truth of the case,” Todorov explained.

The Deputy Minister added that checks had been carried out and that the people connected to the case had valid firearms permits.

“This case requires very in-depth work, which will not be completed in one, two or three weeks. That is why every detail of the investigation is extremely important and will be preserved until the objective truth is fully clarified. Unlike what we see in society, where once again everyone is speculating about the case, we are acting professionally, as we always do, and we will state the truth and the outcome of the investigation when we consider that everything has been clarified down to the last detail,” Todorov said.

Asked why there had been no comment for a week from the political leadership of the Interior Ministry and where outgoing Interior Minister Daniel Mitov and Secretary General Miroslav Rashkov were, Todorov replied: “Because it is necessary to say something that is true and that can be proven in the course of the investigation.”