National Customs Agency Director General Petya Bankova has been detained for 72 hours, the Bulgarian news agency BTA has reported.
Bankova’s lawyer Adelina Natina told reporters that her client had been charged with participation in an organized criminal group for trading in influence, contraband, bribery, together with three other people whom she does not know. Adelina Natina stated, that in an informal conversation, employees of the counter-corruption commission told her that the home of Zhivko Kotsev, Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior, had been searched. Earlier today, Zhivko Kotsev submitted his resignation. Natina also showed the decision by the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office with the charges against Petya Bankova. The other people who have been charged are Stefan Dimitrov, Marin Dimitrov and Nikola Nikolov, while Bankova’s deputy Lyudmil Marinov has been released. Lawyer Adelina Natina stated further that Bankova does not know the other people who have been charged with participation in a criminal group and added the prosecutor’s office could demand that the court issue a pre-trial detention order for Bankova. Adelina Natina confirmed that ten people had been arrested during yesterday’s operation, but that charges have only been leveled against four of them.
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