Martin Varadinov, an officer of the National Protection Service (NSO), has been released from custody. He is charged with causing moderate bodily harm to journalist Sonya Koltukliyeva. On Friday, 23 October, deputy military district prosecutor Col. Georgi Zaev asked the court to keep him in custody.
That day, the bodyguard was led out of the Military District Prosecutor's Office in handcuffs, and military police drove him away.
What happened before: Dotsova's National Protection Service bodyguard led out of Military District Prosecutor's Office in handcuffs
The case began on the evening of Thursday, 22 October, outside the headquarters of Progressive Bulgaria in Sofia. Video shared online shows an NSO officer shoving Koltukliyeva as she opens a car door, and she falls to the ground. The journalist then sought medical help. Varadinov was guarding the speaker of parliament, Mihaela Dotsova.
In court, Varadinov said: "I believe I carried out my duties as an officer of the National Protection Service (NSO) lawfully." He asked for a milder measure, as did his lawyer, Tervel Georgiev.
The hearing was told that Varadinov, a colleague and the head of Dotsova's personal protection team have been suspended. The evening before the hearing, the NSO announced an internal inquiry into the incident.
After 2.5 hours at the Military District Prosecutor's Office, Koltukliyeva said pre-trial proceedings had begun and the bodyguard had been detained. The military prosecutor's office is investigating the case. Dotsova went to the prosecutor's office, where she spoke to the journalist in person and expressed regret.
Gen. Rumen Milanov, a former head of the NSO and an MP for Progressive Bulgaria, discussed the case on BNT. He thinks both sides are to blame for the escalation. In his view, the journalist broke security rules when she tried to open the door of the protected vehicle. The general added that such behaviour goes against the work of a journalist. By his reading of the law, her act could be an administrative offence under the NSO Act, but no such offence has been established by a final ruling.
"It is obvious that the bodyguard used more force and she falls to the ground. There is a moment of lack of restraint," Milanov told BNT. Opening the door of a car carrying a protected person is a risk and the guards must react, but in proportion to the threat, he said.
Milanov also sees faults in how the team worked: in where the officers stood, and the driver did not lock the door in time. Dotsova did not break protocol, he said, because the guards' first task in such an incident is to take the protected person out of the risky situation.
Milanov backed Varadinov's release, as there is no danger that he will go into hiding. He said the prosecutors' actions during the arrest were too much for show.