DPS leader Delyan Peevski has asked prosecutors to look into what interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said, he announced in a public statement today. In a TV interview, the minister hinted at a link between the revelations about Peevski's flights and the bomb threats against schools, kindergartens and other public buildings across Bulgaria.

This report follows our earlier story on Peevski's reply to Demerdzhiev, who linked the bomb threats to his own hearing in parliament on 2 July.

Peevski says the minister has pushed an "utterly baseless, absurd and even comic" line in several public statements. He says Demerdzhiev is trying to prove a link between a Bulgarian company and the payment for the flights, but no such link exists. Peevski repeated, as he has said many times, that he and his family paid for the flights.

The DPS leader claims the minister ties his handling of the flights case to the series of threats, and that is why he is reacting. "A line was crossed, beyond which Demerdzhiev began to toy with people's fears and worries, using his ministerial position," Peevski said.

"If it ended with the fiasco of this meme of a minister, I would hardly give him time and attention," he added.

Peevski says Demerdzhiev is using his post instead of putting people's safety and peace of mind first. Under the Constitution, all politicians, whatever their post, must be guided by the interests of the people. They should not play on people's fears to serve their own fears and failures, he said.