Bulgarian Interior Ministry

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry announced on Thursday that Chief Commissioner Zhivko Kotsev, who serves as the Secretary General of the ministry, has submitted his resignation.

The 52-year-old Kotsev was appointed to this post on September 8 last year at the proposal of the Council of Ministers. He was the director of the regional directorate of the Ministry of the Interior-Sofia.

Delyan Peevski, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) parliamentary group chairman, has officially filed a report with the Bulgarian Interior Ministry and the State Agency for National Security (SANS). His request seeks an investigation into how a Russia 1 TV team was permitted entry into Bulgaria, despite the network being on the EU's list of banned media outlets.

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry's press center has reported the removal of a fabricated video featuring the likeness and voice of President Rumen Radev from online platforms. The General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, upon notification from the President's administration, promptly intervened to address the issue.

Bulgarian police arrested a Russian citizen and two Lithuanians on suspicion of exporting "sensitive information" from the Arsenal military plant in Kazanlak.

Chief Secretary of the InteriorMinistry, Chief Commissary Peter Todorov, conferred with the Executive Director of Europol, Catherine De Bolle, during a two-day international forum on law enforcement in Rome, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said in a press release on Wednesday.

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry suggested on Wednesday that the attack on investigative journalist and editor Slavi Angelov on Sofia's central Dondukov Boulevard could be related to his work.

"Most likely it is an attempted assassination," Ivaylo Ivanov, the Interior Ministry's chief secretary, told Nova TV.

Bulgarian police in Pernik, a small town on the outskirts of the country's capital Sofia, on Thursday detained two investigative journalists from the independent platforms Rise Romania and Bivol Bulgaria as they researched a story on fraud involving European funds, the media outlets announced.

Although the number of asylum seekers in Bulgaria has fallen drastically, by a factor of over 11, since the crisis peaked in 2015, most people entering the country and seeking asylum are treated as "irregular migrants" and are detained in closed centres.

These are the conclusions of a report compiled by the Sofia-based Foundation for Access to Rights, FAR, published on Monday.

The European Court of Human Rights, ECHR has made a request for information concerning the 2016 extradition of Turkish businessman and alleged Fethullah Gulen supporter Abdullah Buyuk, Capital weekly reported on Monday.

A criminal group involved in people trafficking for sexual exploitation has been neutralised as part of an international operation on request from Belgium, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry reported, cited by bTV.

The group consisted of Bulgarian citizens and was also involved in money laundering.

The operation in our country was realized on 18 July on the territory of Silistra.