site.btaInterior Minister: Prosecutor General's Car Had Minor Damage after May 1 Blast

Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev Friday shed light on some details about the May 1 blast near the motorcade of Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev on a road from Samokov to Sofia. He said that what the prosecution and investigative services have called an assassination attempt, left minor damage on Geshev's car and that his family were not with him at the time of the explosion.

The Minister also said that Geshev's car had a higher level of protection than the one used by the President.

"I personally saw the car that was hit by the blast. There was minor damage to it, consisting of a hole in one headlight and a pellet that had entering it. There is no other damage," said the Interior Minister during Question Time in Parliament.

"There were no family members travelling with Ivan Geshev in the car that was the target of this explosion. He traveled alone, with his assigned security guard from the National Service for Protection," explained Demerdzhiev.

The Interior Minister said that the route the Prosecutor General used on that particular day was a regular one for him and he had passed through it many times.

“The type of explosive device does not allow the shock wave or debris to penetrate the passenger compartment of this vehicle. This is a car of the highest level of security that the Bulgarian State has at its disposal: much safer and better protected than the car used by the President of Bulgaria," said Demerdzhiev.

Commenting information by the National Investigation Service about an Israeli expert who inspected the scene of the accident, Demerdzhiev said that he arrived in Bulgaria on the very same day, about an hour and a half before the explosion occurred.

On May 1, immediately after the explosion near Geshev's motorcade, Deputy Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov said that it was "a professionally prepared assassination attempt" and that "it was a fluke that the Prosecutor General, his family and a number of other people passing through the area were intact", thus leaving the impression that Geshev traveled in the car with his family.