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Sashko from Pernik was missing for 9 days.

In addition to the police, thousands of volunteers and sympathizers took part in the search for him.

The 12-year-old boy united not only the whole of Pernik, but also the whole of Bulgaria.

Sashko was discharged from hospital a few days ago and is now at home with his father.

This is what the father told in an interview with "Telegraph".

- Mr. Tsvetanov, how is Sashko at the moment, what is he doing?

- At the moment (b.r. - yesterday) he is doing a puzzle, and he is listening to Christmas carols on the phone.

Yesterday he drew his first picture after these events.

On it there are bushes, a path, some distant lights.

I can't describe it exactly, but you also saw it on my Facebook profile.

He had drawn her very well.

I can tell you that, in general, he eats a lot.

For breakfast, he ate 5 slices of princesses with minced meat, then 2-3 portions of soup.

The man makes up for it because he is quite thin and in kilos.

Eat more, rest.

We do a variety of things at home, we read fairy tales, solve puzzles, he draws.

- Now you don't send him to school and watch yourself at home, right?

- No, we don't send it.

Even in the epicrisis from "Pirogov", which they issued to us, it says that he should be treated at home for 10 days.

We are taking probiotics for the tummy because at first he was irritated, not sure what he ate in nature, but he was sick at first.

Now he drinks vitamins, probiotics, as well as for the brain, because it is important.

The Ministry of the Interior is still investigating the version that Sashko from Pernik was kept imprisoned

- You said that Sashko has lost a lot of weight.

How many kilos did he lose in those 9 days?

- I can't say exactly, but perhaps on the order of at least 5 kilograms, maybe a little more - towards 6 kg.

- Is Saško already trying to tell you something about this period in which he was gone, or are you not asking him yet?

There were also psychologists who contacted him in the hospital, but in general it is difficult for him.

His condition is like this – he says one or two words and simpler sentences, but he cannot explain situations.

He tells me "forest", "squirrel", but he can't explain anything in a longer sentence.

Accordingly, I cannot know and say with accuracy.

- You said that in his drawing there are bushes, lights.

Maybe through it he's trying to tell you where he's been and what he's seen.

- Yes, there was a specialist on Facebook who wrote me reviews that one was the lights of a building in the distance, the other was bushes.

But each person interprets a picture the way he sees it.

In general, Sashko expresses himself in this way, but does not interpret.

- Does Sashko feel that he is the hero of all of Bulgaria?

- No.

Someone once said that suffering creates heroes, I am proud of my son for being an amazing child.

He united all of Bulgaria.

I can say a huge thank you to everyone with whom we were constantly looking for him for these 9 days - the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the volunteers, the municipality and all sympathetic people.

Thanks a lot!

And I already believe in goodness, in empathy, in the fact that we still care about each other, somehow we are not alien to human suffering, which is very nice.

I got my faith back.

- Do you remember when you lost your faith in goodness and empathy?

- I lost faith in her before when I thought we were all closed in on ourselves and thinking about our own lives.

We look at our problems, incomes, families and do not look away.

Now, contacting these thousands of volunteers, I find that these people left their children at home to eat sandwiches, did not go to work, could have been fired, did not come home, did not sleep, did not eat to looking for a child they don't know.

My child!

This is amazing and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

It is when a person sacrifices everything for the sake of another person.

12-year-old Sashko from Pernik with his first words

- You also saw on social networks how many thousands of people wrote to you.

However, some of them were not well-intentioned towards you.

Did that weigh you down in any way?

- No.

It didn't bother me.

Whatever guidance was available, I constantly worked with the headquarters, with the mayor of Pernik, Stanislav Vladimirov, who is an incredible person, with the head of the ODMVR-Pernik, Commissioner Mlekanov, who never stopped even personally looking for Sashko.

I was focused on looking for my son, not responding to someone attacking me.

At this point, one focuses on a specific goal.

I am generally not a person who seeks revenge or to judge someone, because I think that everyone's conscience can judge them.

There is a god to judge us.

Hey, now I was even looking for a job and helping people who must have attacked me and spoke against me.

I am a person of faith and God teaches us not to repay evil with evil, but to love people.

- There were ugly moments in the middle of the search around the fourth or fifth day, when people had surrounded your car, wanted to attack you.

Why?

- Because people themselves fall into various conspiracies.

If you have a child, you will understand.

I only have Sashko, I wouldn't do anything to my only hope and love in life.

Every single parent knows how it feels, these conspiracy theories are just ridiculous.

Attacks only hinder the search, but I say again - I did not pay attention, because they are not important.

The search was important.

- I raise it as a question because this behavior made an impression on the whole of Bulgaria.

There were even comments that you looked inadequate.

- Not to say a bad word, but let's see how these people will look if their child disappears.

I graduated in "Law" at the University of Sofia, then I was the chief legal adviser of the Health Insurance Fund in Sofia, then I was the chief legal adviser of a municipality and I have been a notary for 14 years.

Since I have been in these positions and have performed and am currently performing my duties, then I have absolutely no problems.

You can imagine if what happened to me happened to you, how you would look.

I hadn't slept for 9 days and I was subjected to such harassment, it's normal to look bad and I must have looked like that.

Sashko's rescuers become part of a disaster and accident response unit in Pernik

- Then there was talk about the polygraph you passed.

Can you tell us a little more about what they asked you?

- These are things from the investigation.

There are questions on the polygraph that take into account the body's reaction, there are characteristics that take into account whether a person is lying or telling the truth.

These are specific questions that I have been asked, I have answered, and the results have been released.

- The prosecutor's office said you passed the test, you also said you were clean.

- This is not even about me, I wanted my child to be found.

I didn't care, I'm clean about myself and everywhere I can explain the same thing - what I know.

See, there is always only one truth.

When you tell the truth, you can tell it to the whole world, to all investigators, volunteers, friends.

I do not worry.

I didn't even care about the polygraph result, the other result was finding my child.

- Do you feel offended that you were suspected of having something to do with the child's disappearance?

- Of course I'm offended because it's absurd.

It is beyond all human thought.

I didn't react harshly because I didn't have time to do so, and now I don't find it meaningful to respond to such things.

- Right at the beginning of Sashko's disappearance, you said that you were distracted with the phone.

How many minutes did this take?

- I have already told this, there is no point in repeating it.

What the situation was, how I looked for him first, then how I called friends and the police, all this is known.

- How did you come up with the idea to offer the cash prize of BGN 100,000?

- We had no other way out, a lot of time has passed.

We went around everything, with helicopters, with drones.

I also thought different things that might have happened, but now the investigation will tell what happened.

Rather, I did not address the award to these good people - the rescue paragliders, but to possibly some malicious people who may have taken him away, imprisoned him somewhere.

But this is a hypothesis.

This is being checked.

I want to say something very important - my child has this advantage that he does not express these people.

I thought that there are children who talk a lot, and mine, by not talking, can be saved more easily.

- Did you collect the money?

- Some of them were mine and other parts of my friends, with whom we discussed the situation before I did it.

We were ready.

- There were soothsayers, psychics who also kept you busy, looking for their minutes of fame.

Was there anyone among them who really knew something about Sashko?

- There are quite a few fragments, we spoke with some of them who had a direction, they said some localities, as well as specific places.

I also told the volunteers that I only contacted these people because I was desperate.

And when a person is desperate and a clairvoyant calls and says "I know where your child is", I answer "Ma'am, come" or "Tell the volunteers".

There were those who also said that they knew where the child was and that he was lying.

In a situation like that, it had an incredible effect to be told something like that.

As much as you don't believe it, when someone tells you so confidently, you think they might be right and this place should be checked out.

99% of all these psychics are not telling the truth, I'll just tell you this.

This is quite unfortunate because they are misleading people.

I think that there are indeed people who possess such abilities, but they are few.

- You said right at the beginning that Sashko disappeared on other occasions, but returned within a day.

Where is the farthest you have found it?

- These are routes along which we pass.

And now I'm at a loss as to what made him swerve—man or animal or something else.

We walk not only above the prophylactic, but in nature in general.

For the other losses - they happened at a younger age.

Now Sashko is much more independent, we are also near the park in the center of Pernik, he often goes to the park alone.

He knows where our apartment is.

- You didn't worry about letting him go on his own because he will get better and come back.

- No.

And in the mall in Sofia, when we go, he knows where his clothes and shoe stores are and where his playroom is.

He is doing well both in Sofia and in Pernik and there is no problem with space.

I don't know exactly what happened, so I don't know why.

This will be established by the investigation.

- Volunteers left croissants and water at different locations so that, if Saško passed, he could eat.

Did any of them tell you that they found any trace of the place where the child was found?

- The boys who rescued him and other volunteers shared that there were apple trees at the place.

That's what I was told if he ate anything.

But nobody said about croissants.

There was also a dowser who also somehow knew Sashko's direction.

Quite nearby he sent the volunteers to the place.

Maybe he slipped up on the volunteers.

- If you have already taken stock of yourself, did you feel like you were in hell these 9 days?

I am asking you as a parent that I am.

- Absolutely.

You asked why I looked bad, you can't be fine, you're ruined.

I had a hard time recovering.

I can say that in the last 2 days I have slept.

Otherwise, I slept for two hours at a time and had nightmares about looking for him again and waking up drenched in sweat.

And I have to go to rehab, to a psychologist to get over this shock.

- What are your plans with Sashko, what are you going to do?

- I can take him to the pool, on vacation.

Otherwise we are at home and maybe I guess in 1-2 weeks he will be back at school.

But now he is still weak and does not have much strength.

We should not burden him, but let him rest.

- The prosecutor's office said that they will call Sashko's mother for questioning.

Did she call you to ask what was going on, to inquire?

- Yes, yes.

They didn't just call her out, they interrogated her.

- Is it in Bulgaria?

- Yes.

Sashko was found on Saturday, and she came home on Wednesday, November 23.

She cooked him soups, macaroni, came to the hospital to visit us and bring him food, to see him.

She hasn't been with him all the time, but she visits us.

- The question is, do they keep in touch?

- Yes.

He visits us and we talk on the phone accordingly.

- What do you dream about from now on?

- I want a normal life.

This fame I am neither used to nor is it inherent in me.

I'm not used to this media attention.

I want us to go to school, celebrate Christmas, go on vacation - lead a normal life.

- What will you surprise Saško with for Christmas?

- He already has a lot of fans.

We have 10 bags of gifts, we received both live and on Econt.

Whatever he likes, I'll buy him.

- Santa will bring it to him.

- Yes, yes.

He is now inspired, we even thought a little earlier to get a Christmas tree and decorate it.