Bulgarian spy services intercept PM assassination plot

Bulgarian spy services intercept PM assassination plot

A conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister of Bulgaria has been intercepted in its planning stage by the country’s intelligence services, according to information published yesterday in the Bulgarian press. The Sofia-based 24 Chasa daily alleges that Bulgarian intelligence agents were able to intercept telephone conversations leading to a meeting of conspirators, which took place four months ago. The meeting, held at the luxury King George Palace Hotel in downtown Athens, Greece, was reportedly attended by several Bulgarian “participants [who] came onboard yachts, accompanied by numerous bodyguards”. The meeting centered on plans to fund an operation to “eliminate” Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, of Bulgaria’s conservative GERB party, who has led the country since the summer of 2009.

According to 24 Chasa, participants at the meeting pledged the sum of €400,000 to fund the assassination of the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, a country that has been a member of the European Union since 2007. If the paper’s allegations are true, this would be the third known plot to assassinate Borisov, who was Bulgaria’s Interior Secretary and the Mayor of Sofia before assuming Prime-Ministerial duties in 2009. Earlier this month, Borisov revealed during a television interview that Bulgarian intelligence had intercepted a 2005 telephone conversation between individuals in Amsterdam, Holland, and Milan, Italy, discussing plans to assassinate him. Bulgaria’s Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for political security, and the country’s National Intelligence Service (NRS), have refused to comment on 24 Chasa’s allegations, though a press statement said security measures to protect the Prime Minister had been