Arrested and charged (to all my friends at GERB and not only) – Analysis

© Georgi Kozhukharov

“Dnevnik” republished the story of the former regional coordinator of “GERB Youth” in Ruse and the region Pavel Tsvetkov from his Facebook account what happened to him in the protest on September 2. In 2014 and 2017 he was also a candidate for city deputy, Tsvetkov is 33 years old. Title and accents are from the publishers.

Arrested and charged.
Under threat of five years in prison.
Or the destination of a membership card.

To all my friends at GERB (and not only). I decided that it was important to know how the people you support work the moment they turn against you. Which I also supported until years ago and for which I voluntarily worked, on behalf of an imaginary cause. It’s hard for me to post this in public, sorry, because there are still so many people among you that I respect and that I know really believe in this cause. But I think it is important to know what happened to me and many others on September 2 and 3 and to draw your own conclusions if you want to support that. Until recently, I personally expected something to change and kept my membership in the party. But after what I saw with my own eyes, my decision is already made.

On September 2 we traveled with Lyudmil Radulov from Ruse to support the national protest. We joined at 7 pm We spoke with the people in the square, we exchanged opinions, ideas. There were small groups of masked ultras at the protest, constantly fixing something, wandering around, making phone calls and clearly distinguishing themselves from most of the normal people in the plaza. At around 10:15 p.m., the police bombardment began.

The explosions sounded terrifying. In addition to bombs, bottles, stones, cobblestones and everything else that could be found were thrown in the square. I have a stepbrother who works in the Gendarmerie and he knew he was somewhere in the National Assembly and could get hurt. I later learned that he had been hit by a thrown cobblestone. We talked to a lot of people all night and I kept explaining that this shouldn’t happen because these guys are there to do their job and act on orders.

After almost half an hour of bombardment, in which the policemen only covered themselves with shields and did nothing else, at one point they apparently received an order and began to make tactical maneuvers to divide people and disperse the protest. At that moment, everyone who dropped bombs and cobblestones quickly evaporated.

After a few minutes, the police cordoned off the square a little less, and Ludmil and I moved to a small street behind the Presidency. A group of policemen lined the side of the street. We, on the other hand, speak calmly with the people around us. At one point, the cordon approached us. Most fled. At first I ran, carried away by the crowd, but at one point I decided that since I had done nothing wrong, I had nothing to run from and stopped. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

One of the guys knocked me to the ground. I was furious. Understandably after the cannonade that fell on their heads a little while ago. Although I fully cooperated with him, he yelled the same orders multiple times. He buckled me up, stood, and led me away On the other hand, a second employee picked me up. As I passed through the crowd, the other stabbed me several times in the ribs. To my great surprise, I asked him why he was doing it. He angrily replied, “Why did you drop bombs on us until a while ago, now you will see?” I looked into his eyes and asked him if he really thought he had thrown bombs at him. He was silent.

They took me out of the National Assembly and put me on the sidewalk. There were already around thirty other “criminals” detained handcuffed or with braids. They continued to lead. Some of the cops were still furious and yelling at the seated people like “Hey, you’ll see, you fucking bastards!”, “We’re going to ruin your life, you bastard!” etc. Later, I learned from another detained journalist boy that most of the employees in the plaza were not actually policemen, but mercenaries from the Delta Guard company. . For the strangers, I will just mention that this is a security company, linked to the government, which is known for many scandalous actions and beatings by its employees.

In principle, I have always opposed and criticized all kinds of accusations of conspiracies and conspiracies, but in this case, the events unfolded in the way that many public figures subsequently interpreted. For about half an hour, the boys from the Ministry of the Interior and the Gendarmerie were attacked with bombs and cobblestones without being ordered to move. The bombs were no more than 40-50 to more than 5,000 in the square. Then the ultras suddenly disappeared, and then tactical dispersal operations began, and the policemen, already enraged after the shooting, randomly caught people in the streets. Suggestion or not, I can’t say for sure, but it really did look like this.

After 45 minutes of being handcuffed on the sidewalk, we were taken with several children to the Third District. They made us sign a lot of things and put us in cells. From there, an endless wait began that, although it lasted only 20 hours, it seemed to all of us a week. The conditions in the cell were such that we began to sincerely sympathize even with the actual crimes that had taken place there before. To be descriptive enough without going into too much detail, I’ll just say that some of the previous occupants had painted various wise thoughts on the walls.

In the three cells we were a total of about 15 boys, among whom were two journalists, a young doctor from Pirogov, owner of a furniture company, a computer specialist, an employee of the European Central Bank and other similar suspicious figures. I and all these guys, detained in the same way as me, made the mistake of deciding that there was no need to flee after we had done nothing wrong, we were charged with vandalism, threatening us with five years in prison.

The accusations are based on the testimony of some of the employees of the Ministry of the Interior. They saw me “throwing bottles in uniform and with extreme audacity to insult, shoot and shove the policemen and resist arrest.” Each of you, as you know me, can judge which of these acts I am capable of committing. The charges against almost all the detained children were based on a pattern, with testimony from the same four policemen.

We were released at 9 pm, three hours before the legal deadline. The lawyer we spoke to shortly before we were released said that during our arrest and detention, Dozens of violations of the law and our rights have been committed by employees of the Ministry of the Interior.For example, they refused to speak to a lawyer, they took pictures of us without our consent, they tricked us into signing a lot of things without a lawyer present, etc.

This happened on the night of September 2. These are the gamens and hooligans that we were in custody. I would just feel it as an interesting experience and even have fun with it if the threat of 5 years in prison according to art. 325, para. 2 of the Penal Code. Rest assured that it will not happen. I suppose.

The lawyer who took over the cases for most of us claims that everything about the charges is absurd and nothing can happen.

However, my conclusions from what I saw remain. And my participation in the party, in which I still had hope that there was some morality and principles, has now formally ended.

The irony was that during the search at the detention center, they took out of my wallet and described the forgotten GERB membership card, which was still there. Arrested during the arrest of a protest against the GERB government.