site.btaDemocratic Bulgaria Requests Parliamentary Hearing of Interior Minister, National Security Agency Head over Murder in Plovdiv

The Democratic Bulgaria parliamentary group Tuesday requested from the National Assembly Chair a hearing of Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev and State Agency National Security (SANS) head Plamen Tonchev over the August 4 murder in Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria). The hearing is to be held the first week after Parliament's summer recess, the party's press office said.

On August 4, a group of teenagers lured through social media 37-year-old Georgi Kuzev to Plovdiv's Youth Hill locality, where they assaulted him for more than an hour. The victim died at the hospital several hours later from the severe injuries sustained. Three boys and two girls, aged between 14 and 17, have since been arrested and charged with murder, committed in complicity in a particularly cruel manner, motivated by hooliganism and sexual motives. The teenagers had imitated so-called "paedophile hunter" groups, investigators said.

The purpose of the hearing requested by Democratic Bulgaria is to acquaint the MPs with the available information on potential radicalization processes among underage Bulgarians, including through social networks and other online platforms, as well as the dissemination and adoption of extremist and neo-Nazi ideology, symbols, and patterns of behaviour; and to determine the scope of the activities of groups and networks that promote violence and vigilantism under the pretext of “hunting pedophiles,” and whether they have ties to foreign far-right and neo-Nazi organizations. 

Democratic Bulgaria has also submitted a written question to the Interior Minister, requesting a written response. The parliamentary group asks what specific actions the Ministry is taking to identify, prevent, and curb the radicalization of minors through online groups, other groups, and networks that promote violence, extremist ideologies, or vigilantism. Democratic Bulgaria also asks how these actions align with effective institutional efforts to combat sexual crimes against children, so that reports of such crimes are promptly identified and investigated by the competent authorities, rather than creating conditions for vigilantism and violence.

Democratic Bulgaria has also submitted a parliamentary inquiry to SANS Chair Tonchev, requesting a written response as to whether the Agency has information regarding individuals, groups, informal communities, online channels, or networks that disseminate or promote Nazi, neo-Nazi, or other extremist ideologies associated with justifying, propagating, or committing violence, and that maintain ties with foreign extremist organizations, structures, networks, or individuals. 

In connection with the brutal murder in Plovdiv on August 4, Democratic Bulgaria asks whether, prior to that date, SANS had information, reports, analyses, or other data regarding individuals, groups, profiles, or online communities related to the defendants in the case or their immediate circle, from which signs of radicalization, violence, use of Nazi or neo-Nazi symbols or ties with foreign radical networks could be identified. The parliamentary group also wants to know whether, following this crime, SANS is taking any action to determine whether the behaviour and views demonstrated by the defendants or individuals in their circle are the result of influence, contact, coordination, or affiliation with a broader Bulgarian or foreign radical network, or whether they are merely imitating extremist content disseminated online.