Bulgaria's Ex-Ambassador to US Says Her Detention Was 'Misunderstanding'

Elena Poptodorova, who on Tuesday was detained at the airport in Warsaw with unpaid cosmetics from a duty-free shop, denied having stolen the goods.

The Bulgarian News Agency quotes Poptodorova as saying she had received a call from her sick mother and went out of the shop to accept it there with the cosmetics in her hands.

Reportedly, Poptodorova, who has not served at the Foreign Ministry over the past year, showed her diplomatic passport to authorities.

She has been Sofia's Ambassador to Washington for a total of 12 years, two times between 2002 and 2008 and 2010-2016. After leaving her second posting there, she was appointed head of the Warsaw office of Global Jewish Advocacy, a non-profit.