Photo: Screenshot from a video by Nova TV.
Briefly on the topic:
On December 31 of last year, the Interior Ministry in Stara Zagora reported that 58-year-old driver Plamen Penev, driving an Audi, “was involved in a traffic accident with a police vehicle and passed away.”
The following day, all national TV channels aired amateur footage that seriously contradicted the initial information released by the police. The footage shows that Plamen Penev was being pursued by the police, and after his car was blocked, he crashed. He was forcefully removed from his vehicle and taken down by several police officers who struck him.
Galin Nedelev, a policeman from the Second Police Station in Stara Zagora involved in the arrest, is the son-in-law of Commissioner Iliyan Ilev, the head of the “Security Police,” who has been tasked with overseeing one of two internal disciplinary investigations into possible police violence leading to Plamen Penev’s death.
According to regulations and internal rules of the Ministry of Interior for automobile pursuits and detaining individuals, the actions of the police in Stara Zagora are deemed unacceptable, as they endanger the lives not only of those pursued but also of the officers and any bystanders present.
The director of the Ministry of Interior in Stara Zagora, Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov, did not respond to the question from “For the Truth” regarding whether a knife, mentioned in a call to emergency services as the reason for the pursuit and detention, was found in Penev’s car.
Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov also declined to comment on the possibility that the report against Penev was made by drug dealers, as he had become an unwitting witness to drug distribution among teenagers.
According to a source for “For the Truth,” the conclusion of a triple autopsy performed in Plovdiv indicates that Plamen Penev died from asphyxiation.
Information from a source for “For the Truth” suggests that the deceased wrestler had mental health issues and was a patient at the Psychiatric Dispensary in Stara Zagora.
One of the two daughters of the former wrestler told Nova TV: “Our father had an illness for which he was prescribed medication, and he took it.” This could explain Plamen Penev’s attempt to escape from the police, as there appears to be no other motive for such behavior.
The actions of law enforcement in the case of Plamen Penev, as well as in the case of the violence against Debora Mihaylova (also in Stara Zagora), raise doubts about a deeply flawed system within the Ministry of Interior and the prosecutor’s office in the city.
The death of 58-year-old former national wrestling champion Plamen Penev in Stara Zagora, which occurred after a chase through the streets of the city and an attempted arrest by police with several patrol cars, raises serious suspicions of brutal murder. Whether this is the case needs to be proven by the investigation and the prosecution, in which citizens have long since lost the trust they once had. When it comes to investigating individuals within the law enforcement system, skepticism about the truth emerging only increases.
Fact Overview
The first press release from the Regional Directorate of the police on the case was issued on December 31 of last year. It stated that 58-year-old Plamen Penev, driving an Audi, “was involved in a traffic accident with a police vehicle and passed away.”
The following day, all national television channels broadcast amateur footage captured by a car passing close to the location where, according to Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov—the head of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Stara Zagora—a police vehicle “blocked” (police jargon) the former wrestler’s car. The footage in the video (see at the end of the text) seriously contradicts the initial information from the police, but evidently caused a stir among the leadership of the Stara Zagora Directorate, which only decided to make statements to the media three days after the tragedy. This was in contrast to the case of “Debora Mihaylova,” where police and prosecutors held a joint press conference immediately after it became public.
Today, Lazar Hristov detailed the streets where Penev’s vehicle was pursued, where he made a U-turn, where he reversed, at which traffic light he stopped, how many vehicles he hit during the chase, how he made an unsuccessful attempt to run over a policeman, how many times he entered the OMV gas station, where on one occasion police tried to break the windows of his car, how many times he drove into oncoming traffic, and so on. Throughout, he spoke of three patrol cars involved in the chase, while Emanuil Yordanov stated on btV that there were nine, effectively the entire available duty roster of the two police stations in the city.
According to the director of the Stara Zagora Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, this operation was not planned, and his subordinates acted on a report of an armed individual, during which several traffic accidents occurred.
Lazar Hristov commented that the police acted according to the situation and that none of them went out onto the street with the intention to kill. He guaranteed the objectivity of the two internal investigations he ordered, for which a large volume of evidence had already been collected. However, it turned out that the officers under investigation had not been temporarily suspended from duty while the inquiries were ongoing. The reason for this was not explained by Senior Commissioner Hristov.
What did the police chief not say and what did he conceal?
Firstly, that Galin Nedelev, a policeman from the Second Police Station in Stara Zagora associated with Penev’s arrest, is the son-in-law of Commissioner Iliyan Ilev, the head of the “Security Police,” to whom the director assigned to oversee one of the two internal disciplinary investigations in the Directorate.
The director of the Ministry of Interior in Stara Zagora did not respond to the question from “For the Truth” regarding whether a knife, mentioned in the report made to emergency services, was found in the deceased Penev’s car, stating that he was not aware of the investigative actions.
Hristov also refused to comment on the possible version that the report against Penev was made because he might have inadvertently witnessed drug distribution among teenagers who typically gathered near the gas station. He ignored, in silence, the repeatedly asked question by a reporter from “For the Truth” regarding whether the police acted correctly when stopping Penev’s vehicle, which he referred to as “blocking.”
According to regulations and internal rules of the Ministry of Interior for vehicle pursuits and detaining individuals, this method of action is unacceptable, as it endangers the lives not only of those pursued but also of the police officers and any bystanders present. This is in direct contradiction to Lazar Hristov’s assertion that the incidental police action aimed solely to prevent traffic accidents and potential victims.
If the police had not pursued the former wrestler during the dark hours but had detained and questioned him calmly the next day, it is likely that a human life would not have been lost, and the “honor of the police badge” would not have been put at risk again.
Such a position was echoed in the morning block of btV by Emanuil Yordanov, a former Minister of Interior, who is hired by the daughters of the deceased former wrestler as their attorney, along with Milen Ivanov, a former vice-rector of the Academy of the Ministry of Interior, and lawyer Lyudmil Rangelyov.
According to a source for “For the Truth,” the conclusion of a triple autopsy performed in Plovdiv indicates that Plamen Penev died from asphyxiation. This corresponds with the assertion of the head of the Ministry of Interior that Penev experienced convulsions after being removed from the vehicle and handcuffed. His death was recorded by the emergency team that arrived on the scene in Stara Zagora.
Whether Plamen Penev suffered from a mental disorder was something his daughter Borislava refused to confirm to “For the Truth.” The only thing she stated was that her father did not carry a knife and did not draw it against anyone.
However, information from a source for “For the Truth” indicates that the deceased wrestler had mental health issues and was a patient at the Psychiatric Dispensary in Stara Zagora. This is a deeply personal issue for the family, which would not be commented on if such a diagnosis did not help explain Penev’s strange behavior and flight during the initial attempt to detain him by the police. Today, another daughter of the former wrestler told Nova TV, “Our father had an illness for which he was prescribed medication, and he took it.”
It is clear that a lengthy investigation process is now beginning, and as in many similar cases before, it will likely continue for years and most probably without convictions, and perhaps even without disciplinary action. However, the case of Penev, as well as that of Debora Mihaylova (also in Stara Zagora), demonstrates that there is “something rotten” and deeply flawed within the Ministry of Interior and the prosecutor’s office in the city.
For this reason, Penev’s daughters refused to have their father’s forensic examination conducted in the city. For the same reason, the defenders of Georgi Georgiev, accused of injuring Mihaylova, want the case to be heard in a different judicial district, and it has turned out that a significant number of judges in the District Court have already recused themselves from this case.
Certainly, the sole reason cannot be attributed only to the lack of answers regarding how and who leads these institutions, although this is particularly important.
It also relates to the absence of integrity among their employees. This term means following one’s moral or ethical beliefs and doing what is right and professional under all circumstances, even when no one is watching.
If the police officers involved in the operation that resulted in Plamen Penev’s death possessed the necessary professional and moral qualities for their positions, they would not have unleashed their wrath (as seen in the casually recorded video) upon a defenseless and, as it turned out, unarmed man, simply because he did not comply with orders to stop. Moreover, this was without him having committed any other crime warranting such treatment. In fact, are we not already entering a phase where people will feel fear and horror at the sight of a uniformed police officer instead of trust? And this is not just in Stara Zagora.
It is also intriguing why thousands took to the streets of the city when the case of Debora Mihaylova became public, yet now, on the third day, aside from social media, no citizen has gone in front of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior demanding an objective investigation and possible punishments for officials if their guilt is proven.
One possible answer to these questions is that society has not yet emerged from its long Christmas and New Year hangover, or that nothing can rouse it from its permanent apathy, which is compounded by a lasting disdain and distrust towards all state institutions.
