Dossier Commission identifies former State Security agents working in Bulgaria’s prisons
An investigation by the Dossier Commission, the body empowered by law to scrutinise official records and identify agents and collaborators with Bulgaria’s communist-era State Security, has found 45 people at the Justice Ministry with links to the country’s communist-era secret service, many currently or formerly employed as prison staff.
The commission said that it had checked 565 people and found 45 State Security people, of whom 25 had been full-time employees of the secret service while the rest were part-timers. The check covered 1990 to date.
For example, the head of Bobovdol prison, Alexander Apostolov, appointed to the position in April 2012, had been a staff member of State Security in Kyustendil. The current head of the security directorate-general at the Justice Ministry, appointed in May 2012, and his predecessor, who had held the post for seven years, both were former State Security employees.
Mileti Oresharski, brother of Plamen Oresharski – finance minister in the socialist cabinet from 2005 to 2009 – had worked with State Security, the commission found. Mileti Oresharski headed Sofia prison from 2006 to 2009.
A Dossier Commission investigation also found that four personnel at the State Commission on Information Security were former State Security officers. Three already had been identified during previous checks into staff at the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence.
(Photo: Miguel Saavedra/sxc.hu)
