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December 28, 2002. Former Chief Military Prosecutor Nikolay Kolev was shot in Sofia in a show of force

The bribe of 150,000 dollars was supposed to reach Nikola Filchev at the end of 1999

Dec 28, 2024 03:13 59

December 28, 2002. Former Chief Military Prosecutor Nikolay Kolev was shot in Sofia in a show of force  - 1

On the evening of December 28, 2002, the prosecutor from the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor's Office Nikolay Kolev returned to his home near “Pirogov“ and dismissed his security guards. Minutes later, he went out into the street again, already in a tracksuit and sneakers, as he had discovered that the batteries in the TV remote were dead, narod.bg recalls.

He quickly bought new batteries and headed for his home at the intersection of “Aboba“ Str. and “Pencho Slaveykov“ Blvd. At that moment, a man appeared behind him and opened fire on him with a pistol with a silencer.

Nikolai Kolev was riddled with 10 bullets, and the killer disappeared into the darkness. During the inspection next to Nikolay Kolev's body, an unexploded grenade was found.

Two days after Nikolay Kolev's murder, a new body was found in Sofia - the psychologist of the specialized Beret unit at the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Dimov was found dead in his car with a bullet in the head and an exploded hand.

The show shooting of the chief prosecutor came after Nikolay Kolev got into a public scandal with Nikolay Filchev. In 2001, the magistrate gave a scandalous interview, accusing the chief prosecutor of abuse of power, wet orders and dropping the bombshell that he had mental disorders, for which he should be immediately examined and dismissed from his post. Weeks after the interview, Nikolay Kolev was arrested by the Berets, and a packet of cocaine was planted in his car. He spent many months in custody before being released due to lack of any evidence.

After leaving the cell, Nikolay Kolev warned on television that Nikola Filchev was preparing to kill him. Although the magistrate was provided with state security, he lost his life, caught by the bullets of a hired killer. Subsequently, Nanka Koleva, the widow of the executed prosecutor, announced that the murder of her husband was organized by the then head of the Berets, Filko Slavov.

According to her, in order to divert the investigation into the two murders, the convenient version was put forward that Nikolay Kolev and Vladimir Dimov had taken money from the Serbian mafia to release the arrested Sretan Josic from prison. According to Edvin Sugarev, 2.5 million German marks were actually paid for the freedom of the Serbian mafia, but the money was collected by Filko Slavov and Alexey Petrov.

Before the shocking execution of prosecutor Nikolay Kolev, the high magistrate was unsuccessfully framed as the guarantor of another unsolved murder in Sofia - that of Yambol lawyer Nadezhda Georgieva. She was found slaughtered in her home in the capital's "Strelbishte" district on February 28, 2000.

A year earlier, Nadezhda Georgieva left her job with Orlin Avramov, a well-known businessman and owner of the "Stara Izba" winery in Yambol, in a scandal, to become the secretary of an influential businessman. Unofficially, it is claimed that Georgieva was Nikola Filchev's mistress.

While in Sofia, the Yambol lawyer became close to Dimitrina Kalaidzhieva, who is the secretary of prosecutor Nikolay Kolev.

Nadezhda Georgieva is not an ordinary lawyer - because of her closeness to the chief prosecutor Nikola Filchev, she performs specific services under his pressure. It is alleged that Nadezhda Georgieva receives a $150,000 bribe, which she must hand over to Filchev. The amount is for the privatization of the state-owned enterprise "Ocean Fishing".

In the early 1990s, the company, which provided 130 tons of fish daily, was seized by businessman Petko Rusinov, a State Security officer. In a short time, the ships and assets of the state-owned enterprise were sold off, and dozens of sailors left their jobs. It was only in 1998, after dozens of signals from the head of the seafarers' union, Plamen Simov, that the prosecutor's office took action and launched an investigation.

The bribe of 150,000 dollars was supposed to reach Nikola Filchev at the end of 1999, in order to cover up the theft of “Ocean Fishing”. At that time, Filchev was on good terms with the Varna magistrate, Nikolay Kolev.

The body of Nadezhda Georgieva was discovered on February 29, 2000, in her penthouse in the capital's “Strelbishte” district. At that time, Nikola Filchev was in Libya on a government plane to lobby for the release of our nurses. This would later be the main argument with which the court refused to call the Prosecutor General as a witness, let alone indict him.

Nikolay Kolev was born in 1949 in Sliven. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" and began working in the Sliven Military District Prosecutor's Office. In 1991 he was appointed to the Prosecutor's Office of the Armed Forces. From December 1994 to November 1996 he served as Prosecutor of the Armed Forces.