site.btaSofia Military District Prosecution Office Charges Protection Service Officer over Incident Involving Journalist, Parliament Chair

The Sofia Military District Prosecution Office charged a National Protection Service officer in connection with an incident between the officer and a journalist from an online media outlet, which took place in the afternoon of October 22 in Sofia, the prosecution announced on Friday.

The accused has been detained for up to 72 hours, and the prosecution is due to submit a request to the court to impose a pre-trial remand in custody detention measure on the officer.

Initial investigative steps have now been carried out, the victim and witnesses to the incident have been questioned. In order to fully clarify the facts of the case, further steps will be taken, including the questioning of witnesses who observed the circumstances of the incident, gathering evidence, analyzing video recordings, commissioning the necessary expert reports and carrying out all other necessary investigative measures.

On Thursday night, the National Protection Service announced it would investigate the incident involving one of its officers, who was protecting National Assembly Chair Mihaela Dotsova, and journalist Sonya Koltuklieva. Dotsova went to the Military District Prosecution Office to speak personally to the reporter and expressed regret over what had happened. After spending two and a half hours at the prosecution office, Koltuklieva said that a pre-trial investigation had been launched and the protection service officer had been detained.