{"id":45748,"date":"2019-02-27T20:36:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T17:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/?p=45748"},"modified":"2019-02-28T18:39:25","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T16:39:25","slug":"bulgarian-policewoman-who-botched-investigation-into-arms-dealers-attempted-murder-swiftly-becomes-prosecutor-together-with-her-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/bulgarian-policewoman-who-botched-investigation-into-arms-dealers-attempted-murder-swiftly-becomes-prosecutor-together-with-her-husband.html","title":{"rendered":"Bulgarian Policewoman Who Botched Investigation into Arms Dealer\u2019s Attempted Murder with “Novichok” Swiftly Becomes Prosecutor Together with Her Husband"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In July 2018, three new junior prosecutors, Ivelina Kosseva,\nMirela Vassileva and Lachezar Ivanov, took\noffice<\/a> in the Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora. Ivanov and Vassileva are husband\nand wife and have been, both, assessed by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) at\nthe same time, which is an extremely rare case in the judiciary practice. Both (on\nthe headline photo) had been investigative police officers at the Sofia Police\nDirectorate (SDVR), while Mirela Vassileva has a special merit \u2013 she has led\nand led to a dead end the initial investigation into the poisoning of arms\ndealer Emiliyan\nGebrev<\/a> in 2015. At that time, the Chief of the SDVR was Mladen Marinov, the\ncurrent Minister of the Interior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a police officer\nto a prosecutor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mirela Boncheva Vassileva<\/strong>\nis a native of the town Kazanlak, and Lachezar\nIvanov<\/strong> is from the city of Rousse. In 2015, they had worked as\ninvestigative police officers in Sofia. Vassileva has been in the Investigation\nof Criminal Offenses Unit of the SDVR and Ivanov – in the Investigation Unit of\nthe 8th Police Precinct in the Bulgarian capital. In 2016, they have both made\na simultaneous career move from Sofia to Stara Zagora, where they became\ninvestigating police officers at the Regional Police Directorate. It appears\nthat the couple had planned to move to Stara Zagora because in 2014 they bought\nan apartment there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if the synced\nmove from Sofia to Stara Zagora is somehow explainable with the fact that the\ntwo are a family, the chance that the subsequent events are a coincidence is equal\nto winning the lottery five times in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of\n2016, Vassileva and Ivanov simultaneously applied for the post of junior\nprosecutor. Previously, they were assessed and admitted to the job competition\nby a decision of the Committee on Proposals and Assessments of the SJC from\nMarch 15, 2016. The competition had been strong with more than 1,000 candidates\ncompeting for 30 positions. The couple failed to qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following year they were again assessed and admitted to\nthe competition by a decision of the Evaluation Committee at the Prosecutor’s\nCollege of the SJC from March 7, 2017. They appear in the list of candidates one\nafter the other, under numbers 151 and 152, although the listing is not in\nalphabetical order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, Vassileva and Ivanov passed the competition\nsuccessfully. The next obstacle to the prestigious prosecutor’s office post had\nbeen the assessment of their moral qualities by the SJC Ethics Committee, whose\nhead was Yassen Todorov<\/strong>, notoriously\nknown from the #Yanevagate<\/a> recordings\nas one of the pillars in the loyal circle around Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Yassen Todorov reports on the moral qualities of the police officer couple <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It has been precisely Yassen Todorov who has reported<\/a>\non the moral qualities of the young police officer couple. Of course, the\nopinion of the Ethics Committee, dated July 18, 2017 was positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, the Prosecutors’ College at the SJC held a meeting<\/a> and approved\nthe ranking in the competition, with Vassileva and Ivanov ranked again one\nafter the other, respectively at 4th and 5th place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been followed by the compulsory training at the\nNational Institute of Justice. Upon their successful completion of the\ntraining, on June 26, 2018, the SJC proposed the appointment of Mirela Boncheva\nVassileva and Lachezar Svetlinov Ivanov, again listed one after the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

PROTOCOL No 24 OF THE MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE ON ASSESSMENT AND COMPETITION AT THE SJC PROSECUTOR’S COLLEGE, HELD ON JUNE 26, 2018 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nowhere in the documents and decisions of the SJC is mentioned\nthat the two police officers are actually husband and wife, but their\nmiraculous career advancement is a fact as is the one of the then- Chief of the\nSDVR, Mladen Marinov, who is now Minister of the Interior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vassileva has never checked\nthe restaurant where Gebrev has been on the day of the poisoning <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former investigating police officer Mirela Vassileva has a\nspecial contribution to the botching of the investigation into Gebrev\u2019s\npoisoning in 2015. According to Bivol\u2019s own research, since the very beginning\nof the investigation, she has received information from the businessman on\nwhere he has had dinner on April 27, 2015, slightly before feeling the first\nsymptoms of poisoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The establishment in questions is the\nGreek restaurant \u201cSozopolis\u201d<\/a> on \u201cSaborna\u201d Street in downtown Sofia (formerly\nnamed Kumbare). Gebrev visited the restaurant with some friends and clients\nfrom Poland. There he ordered fish, not salad with arugula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important detail is that there had been a group of\nRussian-speaking people at the table next to Gebrev and his company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Gebrev told the media, after the dinner he felt itching\nin the right eye, which became unsupportable around midnight. On the next day,\nApril 28, the eye turned swollen and even more irritated and he put eye drops,\nbut they did not help. He also had a severe headache that refused to subside\nwith painkillers. In the evening, the businessman went to a party with a big\ncompany at restaurant \u201cPanorama\u201d at Hotel \u201cMarinela\u201d in Sofia. There he became\nviolently ill and was urgently taken to the Military Medical Academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once there, Gebrev’s condition deteriorated even more. But\nbefore falling into a coma, he had managed to give an account of the events to\ninvestigating police officer Mirela Vassileva from the SDVR, including telling her about the dinner at\nthe Greek restaurant the night before and about the symptoms<\/strong> that appeared\nlong before he went to the \u201cPanorama\u201d restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vassileva, however, has not paid any attention to \u201cSozopolis\u201d\nand has focused entirely on \u201cPanorama\u201d, where, as it became clear from the\nwords of Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov, she collected the said arugula\nfrom the salads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gebrev has been informed by the Prosecutor’s Office about\nthis important “omission” only seven months later. Then, he realized\nthat the investigation had been led in the wrong direction by Mirela Vassileva\nand protested against its closure. Only after his protest, eight or ninth\nmonths after the poisoning, the investigators have visited the \u201cSozopolis\u201d\nrestaurant, but the security camera footage has no longer been available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The owner of \u201cSozopolis\u201d, the well-known and wealthy hotel\nowner, Stefan Sharlopov, surprisingly passed away last year at the age of 55.\nHis sudden death remains inexplicable for his relatives, who say he had been\nhealthy as a “rock”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reconstruction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timeline of the events we set out here is based on the\nmost plausible premise so far – that Emiliyan Gebrev had been attacked with a\nnerve agent from the Novichok family that had penetrated the skin. The same\nhappened to former Russian military intelligence\nofficer, who acted as a double agent for the UK\u2019s intelligence services, Segrei\nScripal, and his adult daughter Yuliya, who touched the handle of their front\ndoor, sprayed earlier with the powerful poison by the agents of the GRU. Years\nprior to this, in\nRussia, a Novichok-like substance on a phone handle poisoned and killed banker\nKivelidi<\/a>. His secretary, who had touched the handle before her boss, also\ndied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened at the \u201cSozopolis\u201d restaurant on April 27?\nGebrev had made a reservation in advance, something that had become known to the\nGRU agents. He had been under surveillance, including a tactical eavesdropping\nof his phone with an IMSI-catcher device. The businessman arrived at the\nrestaurant at 7 pm and sat at the reserved table with his Polish friends. The\nRussian agents had been at the table next to them. They had waited for Gebrev\nto go to the restroom. When that moment came, one of the agents went there ahead\nof the businessman and sprayed with the poison the inside door handle or the button\nof the water tank. Gebrev entered after him and touched the contaminated surface.\nThen, with his right hand he touched his right eye, through which the poison\nalso penetrated. Another GRU agent came to the restroom after Gebrev had left,\ncleaned everything and deactivated the poison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miracles do not\nhappen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is the sudden and miraculous family career advancement of the\nformer policewoman investigating the Gebrev case random or just a logical next\nstep? From the public information on the work of the SJC and the findings from\n#Yanevagate, we know that miracles there do not just happen like that, but they\ncan happen if they are carefully planned by the people who “hold the\nCouncil”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, however, if Mirela Vassileva had ordered the seizure\nof the video recording of the cameras in and around the Greek restaurant at the\nbeginning of the investigation, there would now be information about who had\nbeen the Russian-speaking people on the table next to Gebrev, and whether the GRU\nagent Denis Sergeev had been among them. According to the investigative site Belingcat<\/em> and its Russian partner The Insider<\/em>, Sergeev had been in Sofia\nthe same day under the false identity of Sergey Fedotov. According to the latest\navailable information, Sergeev-Fedotov had tailed Emiliyan Gebrev and had even\nbooked a room in the “Orbita” hotel, where Gebrev\u2019s office is located.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In July 2018, three new junior prosecutors, Ivelina Kosseva, Mirela Vassileva and Lachezar Ivanov, took office in the Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora. Ivanov and Vassileva are husband and wife…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","kia_subtitle":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5542,5806],"tags":[9177,9132,9179,9133,5142,9176,9178,8553],"class_list":["post-45748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigations-en","category-leading-en","tag-denis-sergeev","tag-emiliyan-gebrev","tag-gru","tag-novichok","tag-prosecution","tag-prosecutor","tag-sergey-fedotov","tag-sjc"],"yoast_head":"\nBulgarian Policewoman Who Botched Investigation into Arms Dealer\u2019s Attempted Murder with "Novichok" Swiftly Becomes Prosecutor Together with Her Husband - Bivol!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/bulgarian-policewoman-who-botched-investigation-into-arms-dealers-attempted-murder-swiftly-becomes-prosecutor-together-with-her-husband.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bulgarian Policewoman Who Botched Investigation into Arms Dealer\u2019s Attempted Murder with "Novichok" Swiftly Becomes Prosecutor Together with Her Husband\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In July 2018, three new junior prosecutors, Ivelina Kosseva, Mirela Vassileva and Lachezar Ivanov, took office in the Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora. 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The embezzlement is primarily tied to funds from different European Union programs awarded under the law for public procurement. The procedures, however, were conducted in gross violation of the law.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investigations"","block_context":{"text":"Investigations","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/investigations-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/%D0%A1%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BA-%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-2023-03-30-%D0%B2-17.40.52.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/%D0%A1%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BA-%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-2023-03-30-%D0%B2-17.40.52.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/%D0%A1%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BA-%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-2023-03-30-%D0%B2-17.40.52.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/%D0%A1%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BA-%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-2023-03-30-%D0%B2-17.40.52.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/%D0%A1%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BA-%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-2023-03-30-%D0%B2-17.40.52.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/%D0%A1%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BA-%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-2023-03-30-%D0%B2-17.40.52.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51633,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/who-is-the-bulgarian-accomplice-in-arms-manufacturers-poisoning.html","url_meta":{"origin":45748,"position":4},"title":"Who Is the Bulgarian Accomplice in Arms Manufacturer\u2019s Poisoning?","author":"Atanas Tchobanov","date":"25 January 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cIt is important to clarify the forgery contained in official correspondence by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, part of which is diplomatic note KO 194-45-1\/April 30, 2015 and other documents coinciding with the dates surrounding the crime.\u201d The arms manufacturing company Emco of businessman Emiliyan Gebrev made this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comments"","block_context":{"text":"Comments","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/comments-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/transmobile-gebrev.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/transmobile-gebrev.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/transmobile-gebrev.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/transmobile-gebrev.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/transmobile-gebrev.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":57229,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/bulgarian-agriculture-ministers-in-laws-absorb-bgn-1m-in-eu-subsidies.html","url_meta":{"origin":45748,"position":5},"title":"Bulgarian Agriculture Minister\u2019s In-Laws Absorb BGN 1m in EU Subsidies","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"10 June 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Dimitar Karanashev, father-in-law, and Zoya Karanasheva, sister-in-law, of Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture Dessislava Taneva, have absorbed through companies and as individuals nearly BGN 1 million in agricultural subsidies in 2018 and 2019, a check by Bivol in the online database of the State Fund Agriculture (SFA) reveals. Kosta Karanashev is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DFZ"","block_context":{"text":"DFZ","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/b-files-en\/dfz-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/taneva-karanashev.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/taneva-karanashev.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/taneva-karanashev.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/taneva-karanashev.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/vasileva-ivanov.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}