site.btaRuse Police Chief Severely Beaten after Confronting Reckless Drivers; Politicians Condemn Assault

The chief of police in Ruse, on the Danube, Senior Commissioner Nikolay Kozhuharov, has been rushed to hospital in critical condition after being brutally attacked on Wednesday night, following a confrontation with a group of men allegedly drifting their cars recklessly, according to a Facebook post by Ruse Mayor Pencho Milkov Thursday. 

Four suspects have been detained in connection with the attack, three aged 19 and one aged 15, Commissioner Aleksandar Kovachev, Deputy Director of the Ruse Regional Police Directorate, said.

Svetoslav Velikov, spokesperson for the District Prosecution Office in Ruse, said that pre-trial proceedings had been initiated for two crimes - hooliganism and moderate bodily harm with hooligan motives. The penalties for these crimes are up to five years and two to ten years in prison, respectively. The law provides for a harsher sentence when the victim is a police officer - three to ten years for causing moderate bodily harm.

President Rumen Radev said that the State was in serious decline when it could not protect the life and health of citizens, citing the attack on Kozhuharov as proof. He warned that conduct and rhetoric at the top were fuelling troubling events in everyday life. Radev added that the collapse of State authority had to stop.

Interior Minister Daniel Mitov said that the attack on Senior Commissioner Kozhuharov would be considered an attack against the state in any democracy. Mitov noted that the attack was against an institution tasked with ensuring the rule of law in Bulgaria. “In any democracy, an attack on a police officer is treated as an attack against the state. Such acts will be prosecuted with the harshest possible penalties,” he added. The incident reflects the erosion of respect for the Bulgarian state, Mitov added.

Mitov and Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry, Chief Commissioner Miroslav Rashkov visited Kanev University Hospital, where Kozhuharov is being treated for polytrauma. He underwent life-saving and organ-preserving surgery after losing more than 1.5 litres of blood. Hospital officials reported that his condition has improved in intensive care. He requires pulmonary and hemodynamic stabilization.

Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov sharply condemned the attack and called for tough punishment for the perpetrators. He described such actions as unacceptable and an assault not just on the individual, but also on statehood and public order.

Yes, Bulgaria! also condemned the assault, saying that "this kind of violence is incompatible with the principles of the rule of law and civil society and undermine public trust and the sense of security and order." "Protecting institutions and their representatives is fundamental for the proper functioning of any state governed by the rule of law," the party wrote on Facebook. 

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) chairperson and MRF–New Beginning Floor Leader Delyan Peevski also condemned the assault on the Ruse police chief, calling it a dangerous sign of growing impunity and disregard for law enforcement among young people. He described the case as another test for the Bulgarian courts and their tendency to show undue leniency toward perpetrators of road crimes, vandalism, and increasingly frequent violent acts on the streets, referencing the case of a youth from Razgrad who was involved in a fatal driving incident, which killed three people. 

There Is Such a People (TISP) leader Slavi Trifonov said that the assault reflects disregard for the State and amounts to both a crime and a human tragedy. Trifonov argued that the director of police represented not just a single individual, but the institution and the State itself. "The State represents us and its character reflects our own. We shape it through our actions. An attack on the head of police goes beyond a criminal act – the State must respond promptly and decisively," he added.