Kardzhali Mayor Erol Myumyun was detained again on Thursday after police entered the municipal building and took him in for questioning, the press office of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) confirmed to Nova TV.
Uniformed officers also visited Myumyun’s home. His detention marks the second time he has been taken into custody this year, coming five months after he was escorted by a police convoy from the municipality to the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior for questioning. No further information has been released about the reasons for his latest detention.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have brought charges against the mayors of Sungurlare and Belitsa, Dimitar Gavazov and Radoslav Revanski, over alleged influence peddling. The Burgas District Prosecutor’s Office has ordered their detention for up to 72 hours, accusing them of conspiring with each other and a third defendant, identified as Hristo Shirokov, to commit influence peddling in Bulgaria.
Revanski has been held at the Burgas prison facility, which houses the pretrial detention center, since 9:30 a.m. Gavazov was brought there shortly afterward. Shirokov, the DPS regional leader in Burgas, is under house arrest in connection with a separate case.
The Prosecutor’s Office is expected to seek their continued detention in custody, with a court hearing likely before the 72-hour period expires. Questioning of other individuals is also underway.
Gavazov was detained on Wednesday following a four-hour interrogation. Investigators are seeking information about the spending of public funds allocated through public procurement contracts, while other municipal officials were released after questioning.
Shirokov is among those questioned in the investigation. Another individual from a different municipality, who is also affiliated with the DPS central leadership, is expected to be questioned. A protest is planned in Sungurlare.
Investigators are seeking similar information concerning the Municipality of Belitsa. Revanski, who is also a deputy chairman of the DPS, was arrested on Wednesday after anti-organized crime officers and the State Agency for National Security (SANS) entered the municipal building.
His removal from the premises took place amid heightened tensions, with a large crowd chanting his name. DPS leader Delyan Peevski was present, embracing Revanski and making sharp accusations against those in power. Revanski’s mother fainted during the incident, briefly escalating tensions. A heavy police presence remains in place.
Revanski criticized the authorities’ actions while praising Peevski’s support for local residents. “Mr. Peevski gave people bread, while now they are offering a spectacle,” the Belitsa mayor said.
Peevski also denounced the authorities, telling the crowd, “No to the dictator Radev!” He then turned to Revanski and pledged the DPS’s backing, saying, “Radi, don’t worry. These people only understand repression. We did everything together; we are with you.”
Peevski described the operation as a “disgrace and a dictatorship under Radev,” arguing that such actions had no place in a democratic European state and that citizens should not have to live in fear. He said he supported police officers who carried out their duties with dignity but objected to their being used, as he put it, to serve a dictatorship.
Members of the DPS had posted collages on Facebook the previous night bearing the message, “We are Radi, and we are Gavazov.”