A man from Bansko claims that he was subjected to unprovoked aggression by representatives of the Gendarmerie. The incident took place on Saturday against Sunday around midnight. Radoslav Sarafov, who is a blacksmith, had gone home after work, having previously had a drink with his colleagues beforehand. There was a Gendarmerie patrol car 100 metres from the workshop.
He got to it when he received a ring on his cell phone. His friend Georgi Deliyev called him and asked where he was. The blacksmith explained that he was still near the workshop and the two of them agreed that Radoslav should wait for his colleagues and go home together.
Then a gendarme who was sitting in the back seat came out of the car and said to him:
„What are you?!“
„I just don’t have an answer to that. I said – well, here I am, why what happened? „Get out of here as fast as you can!“ I replied – „OK, my colleagues are coming in a minute and we’re off. Why am I disturbing you?“ “You are preventing us from working.” I was already laughing then. I was laughing by then. At 12:00 at night there is no one there, at minus 15 degrees. I was not not sitting on the car, nor in the car. I was standing 2 meters away from the patrol car. I was wondering why I could be bothering them so much. This thing must have infuriated them.„, Sarafov told Iskra.bg.
He claims that a gendarme then got out of the driver’s seat and kicked him in the knee, causing Sarafov to fall to the ground. He thought his leg was broken. They then started kicking them, at which point his colleagues came over and started shouting. At this reaction the gendarmes stopped.
„If my colleagues had been delayed one more minute, they would have beaten me to death!“, the victim is adamant.
His colleagues called Georgi Deliyev, who in turn rang the emergency phone 112 and a patrol from the District Police responded to the scene. According to Sarafov, they were very kind and checked his personal documents.
„The gendarmes didn’t even asked for my ID. It all unfolded in a minute.“, he explained.
After the incident, Sarafov went to his lawyer, took him and together they arrived at the District Office, where they gave a signal. The blacksmith himself had never seen the gendarmerie before. According to him, they thought he was a tramp because, due to the nature of his profession, he left the shop dirty after a working day.
On Sunday, Sarafov went to see a doctor in Razlog. He underwent an ultrasound, as well as an X-ray and blood tests. It turned out that there were elevated white blood cells, which is a sign of infection. As of today, he already has fever. That’s why he goes to Sofia, where he has an appointment with an orthopedist-traumatologist to examine his knee. Doctors also found contusions and bruises on the chest. Today Sarafov will go for an opinion from a forensic doctor.
In addition, he will have meetings with the Head of the District administration and the District prosecutor. The victim also said that the state prosecution had filed a complaint.
Iskra.bg managed to contact the Ministry of Interior, where they announced that an investigation was underway.
