#BULGARIA Conducts Operation Against “Anti-Democratic Ideology”

Bulgaria police take out people from blocked homes in Pazardzhik
Pazardzhik. Police are taking out people from the homes that were closed off in the frames of the special operation carried out in the Bulgarian town of Pazardzhik, Radio FOCUS reported. Two police cars took away several people, including a woman wearing a burqa. More gendarmerie officers are arriving at the scene at the moment, since the detention of the people led to mass excitement and anger among the locals. The situation in the area is still calm.

Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s Office and the National Security Agency (DANS) are conducting a special operation against radical ideologies in four Bulgarian cities, said the prosecution on its website.

The operation is part of an investigation for “propagation of fascist or other anti-democratic ideology or forceful change of the public and state order, provided in the Constitution” and “propagation of war”. Both violations, according to Bulgaria’s Penal Code, are punishable by imprisonment or a fine. Since the morning of November 25, gendarmerie and DANS officers searched 40 premises in Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Smolyan and Haskovo and seized “multiple evidence”, the statement says.

“Additional information will be given when it does not jeopardise the operation,” the statement said. According to unofficial information of the Bulgarian-language media, the operation is against supporters of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation in Bulgaria.

As reported earlier on Tuesday, gendarmerie, police and DANS officers raided the Iztok Roma quarter in Pazardzhik, blocked and searched the mosque there and took away in a police car the local imam Ahmed Musa Ahmed, who has an jail sentence for propagating anti-democratic ideology.