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It is logical that there is a connection between the extortion for which the businessman Veliko Zhelev was arrested and the construction of the "Hemus" highway.

BGN 48 million were paid there ahead of schedule.

This was stated by the Acting Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev

Ivan Demerdzhiev is a lawyer with over 20 years of experience.

He was born in 1975 in Plovdiv.

In 2001, in the program "More from the day" on BNT. 

The prosecutor's office is obliged to investigate all the reasons that could lead to the infliction of this beating.

One of the possible reasons, and for which we have provided sufficient documents to the prosecutor's office, is the slightly over 48 million BGN paid in advance for this lot of AM "Hemus".

At the end of December

GDBOP presented all the information on this case with the amounts paid in advance for the lot from AM "Hemus" to the company of the businessman in question.

They have been submitted to the prosecutor's office, they are there, and it is a matter of elementary care when there are similar events from what we saw - it is qualified as coercion, to look for the reason for the exercise of this coercion.

It is normal to investigate whether this coercion has any connection with the other proceedings, the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out.

According to him, an investigation is being carried out for money laundering, for abuses of VAT - this money paid in advance, its movement is being tracked, because the suspicion is that it was handled in a certain way.

They are not intended to serve for the construction of the highway, but are intended for another type of payment.

The original charge against Veliko Zhelev concerned medium bodily harm, now it has come to coercion, so it is not true that the owner of "Hidrostroy".

For two months, the Prosecutor's Office has had materials showing that part of the 48 million BGN paid in advance for the construction of lot 1 of the "Hemus" highway was siphoned off from the company, Demerdzhiev also said. 

Veliko Zhelev's first words after the arrest

The original charge was of medium bodily harm.

The prosecutor's office changed its view and resorted to coercion, the interior minister added. 

He also commented on today's police action against vote buying. 

Expect vote-buying stocks to become more common.

I expect their intensity to increase.

We have given instructions to start operational work much earlier.

There are already 12 proceedings directly related to election violations.

With the return of the harien ballot, those who wanted to distort the vote learned.

We pay special attention to risky sections throughout the country.

We recall our experience from previous elections - where there were the most violations.

These are sections where the vote has changed sharply.

As well as for sections in which we have received reports of violations.

We use information shared with us by NGOs, Demerdzhiev pointed out. 

Ivan Demerdzhiev

buying votes

Veliko Zhelev