The death of Plamen Penev, the 58-year-old former wrestler from Stara Zagora, who was abused by police officers during his arrest after a 20-minute chase through the streets of the city and died from asphyxiation, has once again brought to the forefront questions about the training of personnel in the Ministry of Interior. As with other cases of police violence, someone needed to take responsibility for the actions of the uniformed officers who exceeded their authority during the operation.
Instead of demanding the resignation of Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov, the director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Stara Zagora, the Minister of Internal Affairs found two other scapegoats – Deputy Director Plamen Petkov and Head of the “Security Police” Ilian Iliev. However, this will not resolve the accumulated issues, nor will it quell the discontent among police officers, as many of these problems are the result of Lazar Hristov’s staffing policy.
According to employees at the Stara Zagora police, upon his appointment, Hristov began moving his subordinates to lower positions without their consent, using pressure and threats. The likely reason for this could be his desire to surround himself with people he trusts. This could have been clarified in a conversation, but the director refused to answer questions from “Za Istinata,” stating that such a meeting was not possible at the moment, without clarifying whether it would be possible in the near future.
Therefore, we present the situation at the local Ministry of Interior Directorate from the perspective of its employees.
Valentin Georgiev is the former head of the “Investigation” department. Under pressure from Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov, he signed a form for his voluntary transfer as a senior investigating officer to the Kazanlak District Police Department to avoid being fired. Later, he began challenging the subsequent order from the Minister of Internal Affairs for his reassignment, filing complaints with various Ministry of Interior structures.
Meanwhile, even before he vacated his office, a commission formed by the director, under the pretext of searching for two pre-trial investigations, conducted a full search and seized all of his official documentation, including documents marked “secret” and his service weapon stored in a safe.
On November 3 of the previous year, a disciplinary investigation was initiated against the Director of the Stara Zagora Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, in connection with Georgiev’s complaints, by order of the Minister of Internal Affairs Kalin Stoyanov (Article 205, paragraph 2 of the Ministry of Interior Act). Georgiev has not been informed of the results of this investigation.
His position as head of the “Investigation” department was taken over by Senior Investigating Officer Chanko Rusev. Georgiev, who refused to sign the appointment for the new position, has been subjected to four disciplinary proceedings. He was informed that if he did not vacate his office and start working in the Kazanlak District Police Department by December 20 of the previous year, he would be fired. On December 5, Georgiev was formally presented with the transfer order, which he again refused to sign and appealed to the Administrative Court in Stara Zagora. Additionally, he filed a complaint with the Regional Prosecutor’s Office for coercion under Article 143 of the Penal Code.
From the “Investigation” department, Chief Investigating Officer Petya Hristova, who was Georgiev’s deputy, was also transferred. She refused to sign the voluntary transfer form presented by Lazar Hristov, who threatened her with a negative work evaluation and demotion. Later that same day, Hristova was ordered to be assigned to the “Traffic Police” department, leaving behind complex criminal cases of high public interest unfinished. Her access to the directorate was also restricted.
Another officer demoted and transferred was Chief Inspector Apostol Apostolov, head of the “Counteraction to Criminal Crime” sector. Just a month after Lazar Hristov’s appointment as director of the Stara Zagora Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, on March 9 of the previous year, Apostolov was moved to an “inspector” position at the First Police Department. The head of the Criminal Police sector was replaced by Chief Inspector Asen Yordanov from the “Organized Crime” unit, and the vacant position was filled by his son, who had just graduated from the Ministry of Interior Academy. Asen Yordanov’s wife also works as the head of the “Highway Police” group in the directorate.
Earlier this year, the civil association “BOEC” published two videos on their Facebook page, showing Asen Yordanov being thrown out of the security at the “Ego” nightclub in the city after an altercation in which he was involved.
The case dates back to last year, and “BOEC” claims to have received the recordings from the criminal community, who were circulating them among themselves.
Similarly, Senior Inspector Boyan Vulev, who was the deputy to Apostol Apostolov and head of a group in the “Counteraction to Criminal Crime” sector, was reassigned as an inspector to a police station in the “Lozenets” Roma district in Stara Zagora. Also reassigned were the head of the “Counteraction to Economic Crime” sector and his deputy.
Other officers, such as Rosen Koev (from deputy head of the District Police Department in Kazanlak to district inspector in Pavel Banya) and Tsanimir Slavchev (from head of the “Economic Police” group in Kazanlak to inspector in a children’s pedagogical room), were also demoted and reassigned.
These and other similar cases, in which the director reshuffles the staff of the directorate like chess pieces, naturally create distrust among the officers of the Stara Zagora Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior towards Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov.
To avoid grossly violating the provisions of the Ministry of Interior Act, Hristov uses unacceptable methods to force his subordinates to sign voluntary transfer requests. In some cases, demotions such as those of Valentin Georgiev and Apostol Apostolov are completely unjustifiable, especially considering the results from the sectors they led, which were among the best in the country for the first half of the previous year. Both were investigating the activities of then-mayor of Gurkovo, Mariyan Tsonev, and his son, Georgi Tsonev. However, just before a case could be opened, the materials were sent to the Specialized Prosecution, where the investigation was squashed.
So who is Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov?
He was appointed as the acting director of the Stara Zagora Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior by the interim Minister Ivan Dermentjiev in the fourth interim government of President Rumen Radev. Hristov came to Stara Zagora from the capital, where he worked in the “Tax Crimes and Social Security System” sector within the “Customs Regimes, Tax and Social Security Systems, and Trafficking in Cultural Values” department at the General Directorate “Combating Organized Crime” of the Ministry of Interior. His initial appointment was temporary because he did not meet the requirements for the position, which called for at least one year of managerial experience. Later, a competition was held for the position of head of the “Criminal Police” sector at the District Police Department in Karlovo. Hristov applied, won the competition, and was appointed permanently.
However, on the same day, he declined the position and was appointed as the permanent director of the Stara Zagora Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, without having any prior experience in a managerial role in the system, as required by law.
As a director, Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov became known among his colleagues and the public for his actions on the day of the runoff for the local elections in the town of Nikolaevo. On that day, he personally went to the small town in the Balkans to lead an operation to arrest “Zlatko Bareta’s people.” In reality, the three well-built men had no connection to Bareta, and they were actually tracking whether Stilyan Velinov – the candidate for mayor of the municipality from the DPM (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) – was buying votes on election day. Later that afternoon, the detained individuals were released. However, the actions of the director of Stara Zagora’s police fueled justified suspicions about his ties to the party of Ahmed Dogan and Delyan Peevski. This is likely the main reason why Kalin Stoyanov continues to protect his subordinate, Senior Commissioner Lazar Hristov, instead of removing him from his position, even temporarily, until the investigation into the police officers involved in the pursuit and death of Plamen Penchev is completed.
