At the beginning of today’s meeting of the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Acad. Nikolay Denkov made the following appeal to the Ministry of Interior and Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov:
„I have to bring up the subject of the clash between police and protesters again. Again I want to stress that the overwhelming number of protesters used this opportunity, which they have by law and by right to protest when they disagree with the decisions of certain institutions, but among them there were provocateurs who challenged the police and because of that they have a huge blame for what happened. These provocateurs must be tracked down, investigated and where necessary convicted.“
According to the Prime Minister, this is the duty of the investigative authorities, the police and the Prosecutor’s Office. According to him, a large number of police officers performed their duty as they should do and can serve as an example, but there were also those who exceeded their rights, used violence unnecessarily and they should be investigated and punished for that.
The Prime Minister said that he expected a report from the Interior Minister.
„In these reports, it should be clearly shown which of the persons who caused them has certain guilt, how it was established and what punishment he could expect to receive. And on the other hand – for all reports related to violence by police officers, I want clarity on who the police officers are, how they were investigated, what the result was, and for those who exceeded their authority to be dismissed from their services, as they have no place in the Ministry of Interior,”, he stated.
Based on the statements of the previous days, Academician Denkov shared his concerns that the Ministry of Interior has gone in the wrong direction again. He did not specify who the authors of the statements in question were. The Prime Minister pointed out that journalists should not wear helmets to protests because it was not a combat zone. He insists that a plan be developed to prevent similar cases in the future and to protect media representatives in the field, and that police officers be trained on how to protect the health of journalists.
