Who received the alert for the shared intimate photos of the girlfriend of Arch. Borislav Ignatov in 2012 and what happened to him?
Serial blackmail of more than 20 texts in less than a week and an apparent refusal by the Ministry of the Interior to investigate the political scandal with intimate photos of Borislav Ignatov’s girlfriend posted on the “PIK” site. This is the balance sheet of the past twenty days after the discrediting was spread.
The publication of the photos in question on sites with erotic content back in 2011 against the will of Ignatov’s girlfriend Yordanka Mihailova has not been investigated for unknown reasons. This was stated by a candidate for mayor of “Democratic Bulgaria” in a Facebook post two days after the strike.
“Who distributes pornographic
material …”
However, the appearance of the photos through the “PIK” site falls directly within the scope of Art. 159, par. 2 of the Penal Code: “Whoever distributes through information or communication technology or in similar way pornographic material shall be punished by imprisonment for a term up to two years and a fine from one thousand to three thousand BGN”.
However, as of this moment, there is no information that the prosecutor’s office has initiated a case inspection. And Interior Minister Mladen Marinov has publicly announced that his ministry will not make an internal inspection for possible inaction following Yordanka Mihailova’s signal 7 years ago until she initiated it herself. And he kept his word!
The traces are lost in Varna
According to information of “Pro Veritas”, confirmed by Borislav Ignatov as well, his girlfriend’s complaint was filed in May-June 2012 at the Regional Directorate of Internal Affairs in Varna.
They untied the dogs: https://zaistinata.com/%d0%be%d1%82%d0%b2%d1%8a%d1%80%d0%b7%d0%b0%d1%85%d0%b0-%d0%ba%d1%83%d1%87%d0%b5%d1%82%d0%b0%d1%82%d0%b0/
The complaint contained information that the photos were taken more than 10 years ago by a person she had an intimate relationship with, but were used by him to blackmail her after she ended their relationship in 2011. The photos were distributed on the internet through fake profiles in an attempt Mihailova to be humiliated and toppled.
She undertook the necessary steps to remove the photos from the sites where they were posted and filed a complaint to Varna Police along with the flash drive with distributed pictures. Despite her efforts, however, some of them have not been removed from the network and police have left her ignorant of both the actions taken on her complaint and for the eventual results of them.
The silence
Questions sent to the press center of the Ministry of Interior back in early September had to clarify whether the complaint was inspected, what were the results of it and what happened to the photos submitted with the complaint by Yordanka Mihailova.
Who received the alert?
A check of “Pro Veritas” showed that as of the time of sending the alert in May-June 2012, the Director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Varna was Chief Commissioner Dimitar Dimitrov. He was dismissed from the post in August the same year. The unofficial reason for his resignation is pressure from GERB, which won the local elections in Varna a year earlier, supporting inevitability for the fourth term the longtime and ill-fated mayor of the city Kiril Yordanov.
In September 2012, Todor Ivanov was appointed to replace Dimitrov. Until then Ivanov was head of the First Police Department in Varna. Regardless of this change, during the whole period when the eventual investigation of the complaint of Yordanka Mihailova should be carried out, the head of the computer crime unit in Varna is Commissioner Yavor Kolev (the coincidence with the name of the head of the Cybercrime Department at the State Security and Defense Agency is by chance). He is currently Deputy Chief of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Dobrich. The questions sent to him were also left unanswered.
An impenetrable alibi
Police sources in Varna, who asked for anonymity, told “Pro Veritas” that the practice in cases such as the one with the complaint of Yordanka Mihailova was to destroy all materials for a possible investigation after the expiration of five years of prescription.
And that means that despite suspicions of a possible police complicity in
distributing intimate photos through the “PIK” site, the Interior Ministry
could use this procedure as impenetrable alibi.
It is completely another issue that any destruction of documents and materials
collected in the course of an investigation must be made by a protocol signed
by the persons authorized to carry it out. And protocols, like newspapers,
don’t burn.
Pre-election racket
In the absence of any response from the police and the prosecutor’s office in
the six days after the first episode of the discrediting against Borislav
Ignatov, “PIK” continued unprecedented pressure on him, with more than 20 texts
published on the same topic. They contain anonymous instructions on how to find
non-existent videos on the Internet in which Mikhailova is involved according
to the site; make also hints that other “even more horrible porn photos”
may appear in the coming days; make direct threats to the candidate of “Democratic
Bulgaria” to drop his candidacy for mayor of Sofia, so that no further discrediting
are published.
“All this, of course, motivates me to bring my campaign to an end with
even greater determination,” said Borislav Ignatov. “Currently, a team of
lawyers is working on several complaints about “PIK” publications. We are
considering sending them not only to the Ministry of Interior and the
Prosecutor’s Office, but also to the EU judiciary bodies. A separate alert will
also be sent to the Commission for Personal Data Protection, as we believe that
this was an arrogant violation of the General Data Protection Regulation”.
Backstage support
The
attack on Borislav Ignatov is undoubtedly the most cynical one undertaken so
far in a political battle in our country.
“It is about an attempt to coerce certain behavior, to refuse to
participate in the election process,” Prof. Nelly Ognianova told before BNR.
“This is a phenomenon that has social dimensions as well. And this is extremely
dangerous because revenge porn is an instrument of the culture of fear”.
The clear criminal nature of the incident, the clear traceability of the direct executors of the attack, and the demonstrative inaction of the police and prosecutors, however, give sufficient reasons to suspect that it would not have been possible without behind-the-scenes institutional support.
And the tacit refusal to apply any ethical and moral criteria in the allocation
of private and public advertising or communication budgets has so far provided
a rich nutritional environment for the so-called “yellow press” in
Bulgaria. It is in this uncontrolled environment that Nedyalko Nedyalkov’s site
has allowed himself to cross the border to its darkest sector without
sanctions.
For this reason, the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) – Bulgaria
announced in its position that it strongly condemns the “pornographic
dirt” published by “PIK” and announced an initiative that should limit the
financing of this type of “journalism”. And the Actualno.com website urged the media to refuse to advertise to parties and
politicians who pay to promote themselves in “PIK” and other editions that
disregard ethical standards.
Clear boundaries
The campaign against Ignatov brought together, in just a few days, dozens of media and journalists in their common reaction, called “Today is the Day”. They all called for clear boundaries to be drawn between what is journalism and what is not. The participants in “Today is the Day” asked from the politicians to stop legitimizing with speeches and interviews sites and editions that refuse to comply with the ethical standards of the profession.
Sudden solidarity
Yet
in the first hours after the launch of the initiative, it was supported by
nearly 30 editions, online and electronic media, and by dozens of journalists.
And parties as BSP, VMRO, GERB and “Democratic Bulgaria” have announced they
will not use “PIK” as a platform for their election messages.
The candidates for
Sofia mayors Yordanka Fandakova, Maya Manolova and Boris Bonev have also
announced that they will not work with the site. But there were also parties
that kept silence – MRF, NFSB, “Attack” and “Volya”.
However, behind this sudden solidarity there are years of unscrupulousness.
When they get off the jeep
And we don’t even need to go back much. Political advertising contracts with “PIK” during the elections for members of European Parliament in May had GERB (BGN 10 thousand), NFSB (BGN 15 thousand), “Attack” (BGN 8333.33) and VMRO (10 thousand BGN).
Considering the
practices used to cover election expenses by political headquarters, the actual
figures were probably several times higher than officially announced. Not that
the “PIK” was more ethical, more professional or more principled, then. But the
optimistic assumption of withdrawal of sympathies from Nedyalko Nedyalkov’s
edition now seems rather prosaic.
For years, politicians
in Bulgaria have fed Frankenstein despite warnings that this is a dangerous
adventure. May they realize that they are already among his planned victims as
soon as they get off the jeeps of power.
