The District Military Prosecution of the Bulgarian capital Sofia is considering the criminal case of of ex-director of the National Security Service with the Interior Ministry, Atanas Petrov Atanasov.
Defendant, reserve general Atanas Atanasov, was appointed to the post of director of the National Security Service (NSS) with the Ministry of Interior under Order No. 325 in 1998 and relieved of his post by force of the President's decree in the end of 2001.
This is neither the first nor the only one indictment for Atanasov, who in the past was the omnipotent dictator in the NSS whose one ward was enough to crush lives of many people. Recently Atanasov got a conditional sentence - a 20-month imprisonment. Several other most serious cases against him are pending.
All chargers against the ex-general have one and the same "lining": abuse of power, fabrication of criminal cases that ruined lives of many people, bribery, criminal liaisons with political and economic circles of Bulgaria, libel and defamatory statements about prominent public figures. The state prosecution claims that despite his "successful" criminal activity incompatible with the high official post, as regards his immediate duties Atanasov "was incompetent and inefficient. His incompetent management and unmotivated dismissals have severely damaged the National Security Service and resulted in disturbance of the balance in the structures of the Interior Ministry. This was a serious destructive process.
The main style of his work were personal reports and execution of direct commissions and instructions of the ruling political elite. Guided by the desire for career climbing and seeking personal benefit he channeled the activity of the National Security Service in several major directions: manipulation of the available information and use of personal motives in presenting this information to the heads of the Interior Ministry; practical negligence and disregard to the signals about unlawful activity on the part of certain economic groups and individuals; use of the information gathered by the NSS for the defamation of certain political and managerial officials.
General Atanasov proved himself as a person who was incorrect in his relationships with the subordinates, with employees equal in rank and superiors. His flagrant demonstration of disregard to the decisions of higher authorities resulted in a conviction that in the NSS there was a second center of power". End of quotation.
The body of evidence gathered in the course of the investigation enabled the state prosecution to point out the following facts which were characteristic of the activity of the NSS under Atanasov's rule:
at the end of October 1999, former prime-minister of Bulgaria, Ivan Yordanov Kostov (against whom the present leadership of Bulgaria also presses chargers) offered to Atanas Atanasov to prepare in as short term as possible a report about cases of corruption in the upper echelons of power based on the publications in the press about the allegedly corrupt ministers, deputy ministers directors of state committees and agencies, who were personae non grata for the Kostov's government.
Defendant, Atanas Atanasov, ordered to one of his colonels to head a team of the employees of the NSS and set a term for compilation of this report. Atanasov explained to this colonel that one of the ministers accused of corruption was the then Minister of Interior (and the now witness) Major General Bogomil Angelov Bonev. That is why it was necessary to pick reliable people for the preparation of the report, employees who know to keep their mouths shut.
The defendant summoned the whole team to his office, explained what was the essence of their task and detailed their concrete assignment - to process the information, check out the database of the Interior Ministry, edit the material according to his instructions and include it into the report. A room with a computer was provided for the group where only members of the group, Atanasov and his deputy were allowed. The defendant in person was giving folders with the information to them, including the anonymous materials. Every day, on the basis on these materials the group compiled parts of the report and submitted them to Atanasov. He personally made the corrections and then returned them to his employees for final procession. Then he gave them new texts, hand-written or typed. The employees were obliged to give the completed chapters back to Atanasov. Following his orders the group was not verifying the information, they only checked out the information gathered in the Interior Ministry, the names, firms, etc.
Defendant Atanasov was also giving to the group the materials that were not duly registered in the services of the Interior Ministry, they did not show who compiled them or on what data they were based. On the basis of these materials and without any evidence of corruptive practices on the part of Minister of Interior Bogamil Bonev, they included into the report falsified information about the latter's connections with certain power structures. They suggested the conclusion that the Minister of Interior acted guided by the motives of personal benefit and catered for the interests of definite firms.
All the texts, including the final version of the report, came mainly from Gen. Atanasov and members of the team submitted them for consideration after the texts were concerted with him and approved.
On December 14, 1999 Atanasov (who was aware that there was no information to confirm corruption of Major Gen. Bogomil Bonev) signed the report prepared under his quidance. It was titled "The report on the conditions, environment and cases of corruption in some upper structures of the state power" No. B 5164/14.12,1999. Copies were submitted to the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister.
As a result, on December 20, 1999 Minister of Interior Bogomil Bonev was relieved of his post in the government of the Republic of Bulgaria under the order of then Premier Ivan Kostov (who is now a witness in the suit against Atanasov). It should be noted that mass media did not receive any explanations about the reasons for the Minister's dismissal.
The prosecution maintains that Atanas Atanasov abused his power, that NSS does not avail of any information about the corrupt practices, that Atanasov personally ordered to prepare the report in question and signed it.
Thanks to the false information included into the report the reputation of the Interior Ministery was seriously marred. The public credit to the Ministry was undermined as well as the authority of the Minister of Interior in the eyes of his colleagues abroad.
The prosecution asserts that the crime was committed by Atanasov intentionally. The reason for it is the low level of legal conscience of the defendant and his desire to fulfill his personal ambitions and climb up the hierarchical ladder.
It is especially noteworthy that defendant Atanasov did not pursue his criminal intent in Bulgaria only. In the end of 90's he resorted to libel and fabricated report to help the extradition of world-known businessman Mikhail Chernoy, whose name, honor and reputation suffered a serious blow. The final result was also a severe damage to the Bulgarian economy. The fact that Mr. Chernoy terminated his activity in Bulgaria had a very negative effect on the implementation of several state projects of national importance.
At that time Mikhail Chernoy was a citizen of Israel. Spinning his cobweb of lies Gen. Atanassov suddenly found an ally in the face of general of Israeli police Moshe Mizrahi. Following a conspiratorial plan hatched together with the police brass of Israel from the department headed by Mizrahi, they sent to Bulgaria a confidential document warning that Chernoy was preparing to murder a son... of one of the Bulgarian ministers. The letter comprised a request to follow Chernoy and informed of his telephone numbers in Bulgaria.
We shall not dwell on the chargers against Chernoy which only a paranoid mind could think up. What is shocking to us are the numerous facts that show the identical mode of conduct of the police services of both countries which they use to persecute people whom they see as inconvenient. Both in Bulgaria and in Israel this is the task of the special police divisions. In both countries the secret operation was conducted by top-ranking police officers eager to climb up the career ladder and executing orders given by concrete people. In both countries the information that the police is feeding to the state institutions is the immediate prerogative of the special police bosses who work under conditions of strict confidentiality and form task groups. Both in Bulgaria and Israel, the falsified materials about the alleged crimes are handed to the court and the judges issue warrants for searches, arrests, shadowing and tapping. Both in Bulgaria and Israel the fabricated defamatory information is fed to the mass media that seek cheap sensations and readily publish them without giving a thought to the fact that these materials mar the reputation of innocent people. Then the police quoting the allegedly veritable information in the mass media presents the facts they fabricate themselves as operative roundup and spreads it dozens of other countries as true. Mikhail Chernoy is by far not the only victim of such criminal activity.
General Atanasov has been brought before the court. So far General Mizrahi was only dismissed from his post. We believe that time will pass and the truth will no longer be a confidential information filed by police generals. The justice will be meted out. Criminal defamation of innocent people is the greatest evil that cannot go unpunished in society that claims to be civilized and law-governed.