At a press conference held on April 23, 2013 in Sofia, human rights advocates, public figures, and journalists made public their Call towards the Chief Directorate for Combating  Organized Crime, the Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to fulfill their duties and find the authors of a death threat addressed towards the investigative journalist Hristo Hristov and his family.

Hristo Hristov is the founder and author of the web site www.desebg.com where hе publishes results of his research of the archives of the former State Security Services and the investigations related to the communist past of Bulgaria. Hristov is also an author of a number of books – result of his research in the archives of the secret services of the former communist regime: http://hristo-hristov.com/.  

On April 15, 2013, Hristov found an anonymous threat in his mail box. That was not the first such threat towards him, but was the first to involve his family. The threat being written on the back of a paper with an interview he had given titled The Indifference Towards the Past is Devastating unambiguously shows that he is targeted because of his work of researching the archives of the former communist regime and publicizing findings and facts related to the past and its reverberations on the present.   

 

“Publicity is the best protection for me and my family,” wrote Hristo Hristov in an April 17 post on his web site: http://desebg.com/2011-01-16-11-42-13/1179--desebgcom- . He also informed that he had signaled the Chief Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, the Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the threat he had received.

 

AIP Executive Director Gergana Jouleva and the Head of AIP Legal Team Alexander Kashumov are among the initiators of the call towards the responsible law-enforcement authorities.

AIP has initiated an online petition in support of the Call (in Bulgarian).

 

If you would like to support the Call, please send an e-mail to diana@aip-bg.org with your name and affiliation/profession.

 

The CALL

The journalist Hristo Hristov and his family were threatened with attack and death. This is not the first time he is threatened but for the first time the threats seem real and persistent.

On April 15, 2013, Mr. Hristov filed a signal to the institutions which have the duty and the mission to investigate and prevent such threats.

In the case of Hristo Hristov, the threats are undoubtedly related to his research work on the history, activities, and the documents of the former State Security Services and its metastases in the contemporary political and economic life in Bulgaria.

The threat is not only to the life of Mr. Hristov and his family. This despicability is an assault against the professional and honest investigation of the unknown in the history and the present of the country, an assault against the right of citizens to know this information.

We are not aware so far of an instance when an attacker or an author of a threat against a journalist has been revealed and punished in Bulgaria. We appeal the Chief Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, the Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecutor's Office to fulfill their obligations to find the individual or group who had initiated this horrible act.