A total of over 55 years in prison received Bulgarians spies in London
The six Bulgarians, who were found guilty of espionage in favor of Russia in March, learned the size of their penalties today. The worst charges threatened them for a maximum of 14 years in prison. No one got that much.
But the total number of years that Judge Hillard, according to Judge Hillar, should be prisoned exceeds 55 years.
Some of them will be less imprisoned – from a few weeks to several years they were deducted from the sentence because of the time spent in custody or at an immigrant detention center. But no one will get out of prison before the end of this decade.
| As Bulgarian citizens, they are all subject to deportation in Bulgaria, perhaps to delay the sentence. This will not happen before they have served half of the prison stay and can be released conditionally. After that, the deportation does not automatically, but it is considered each case separately and at this stage one cannot say when they would return to their country, the BBC said. |
Even before he determined the penalties, the judge divided them into two groups of three people according to his assessment of the responsibility they carry for the activities of the group:
- Leader Orlin Rusev received 10 years and 8 months
- His right hand Biser Dzhambazov – 10 years and 2 months
- Catherine Ivanova – 9 years and 8 months (plus 15 months on a second charge).
- Vanya Gaberova – 6 years and 9 months
- Tihomir Ivanchev – 8 years
- Ivan Stoyanov 5 years and 3 weeks.
All of them worked on instructions sent by Austrian Jan Marsalek, who was wanted on a major financial fraud, for whom he was supposed to be in Moscow and is a mediator between the group and the Russian special services. The BBC showed for the first time his photo in military clothing with the sign Z:
It was a case like none so far, because we saw in exceptional detail the actions of a Russian spy operative cell through thousands of their reports of organizing tracking, photos, videos of their targets, and even conversations about abductions and killings, the BBC adds. A parallel was made with Polonius poisoning with Alexander Litvinenko in London and it is commented that the actions of the Bulgarians were likely to lead to such a tragic event, but were stopped on time.
The case is not over because journalists continue to investigate because it was only one cell of a network of similar units of Jan Marsaleck.
Three participated in the trial – Vanya Gaberova, Katherine Ivanova and Tihomir Ivanchev – because the other three had pleaded guilty and therefore were not brought to court. The court heard, and today the judge again listed their operations in which they traveled through Europe to monitor journalists, a former politician and a US military base in Germany between 2020 and 2023. The prosecution insisted that the operation was a threat to the national security related to Jan Marsalek.
During the process, Ivanova and Gaberova admitted to surveillance activities, but claimed that they did not know that this was for the benefit of Russia. Ivanchev did not testify, but stated a similar position during police interrogations after his arrest.
The judge listed various arguments of the defenders, but his judgment was, in the end, that the convicts did not deserve the alleviation of punishment for confessions, personal requests or psychiatric expertise.
- Catherine IvanovaFor example, she constantly claimed that she was misled by her lover Biser Dzhambazov. But the judge decided that she knew quite well what she was involved in and participated in 5 of the 6 operations.
- Vanya Gaberova she had complained that she could not travel by police van to court because she was suffering from claustrophobia and poor mental state, but the judge did not believe her because he saw her behaving and reminded that there was a video of her in Montenegro « obviously happy with her role. » Now Mrs. Gaberova will calm down because the ambiguity about her future disappears and will be able to focus on serving the sentence, the judge summarized.
- Tihomir Ivanchev He regretted his actions in a letter to the court and asked for a 15% reduction in the ancient, but the judge considered his awareness too late and gave him 8 years in prison.
Orlin Rusev and Biser Dzhambazov were identified as the leaders of the whole activity, although Rusev was justified that he did not mean any game by James Bond or spy.
A week ago, the BBC published its investigation, showing that they, along with Catherine Ivanova, were at a meeting in the British Parliament in 2016 on Brexit, sitting just behind the then MEP Georgi Pirinski.
The court showed a reference to what was found in a search at Rusev’s home, which lasted nearly a week:
- 221 mobile phone
- 258 solid discs / digital storage devices;
- 495 SIM cards
- 33 audio recording devices
- 55 Visual recording devices
- 11 drones
- 16 radio stations
- 110 different digital items, including silencers, hacker software, readers/recording devices for RFID cards and GPS trackers
- 91 bank and other cards of financial institutions, including 17 of other person names
- 75 Passports / Identity Documents, including 55 of the names of others.
- Aimed at the Bulgarian journalist Hristo GrozevS He was watched across Europe, and the spy group also discussed the potential theft of the laptop and his phone, his abduction in Moscow or his murder.
- Roman Dobrchtova Russian citizen (founder and editor -in -chief of the investigative newspaper The Insider, closely cooperated with the Bellingkat group, was monitored in different countries. At one point, Ivanova approached him so close to seeing the PIN on his phone.
- Aimed at Bergei Riscaliev, a former Kazakh politicianwho has fled to the UK in the hope of developing relations between Russia and his country.
- Plans for Destructive activity at the Kazakh Embassy in London In September 2022, the group intended to organize false protests – to collect intelligence information to convey to Kazakhstan to try to win the well -being of the country on behalf of Russia.
- Monitoring US Military Base in Stuttgartwhich the defendants thought was used to train the Ukrainian forces.
- Planned to be directed to a man named Cyril Kachura Russian citizen who was designated as a « foreign agent » by Russia in November 2023 after leaving the country.
The head of the Sofia Police Terrorism Division, Commander Dominic Murphy, commented after the verdict that significant penalties show the « serious threat they pose for the safety and interests of the United Kingdom, as well as for goals throughout Europe », which he described as « industrial spy. »
Murphy adds that the case « emphasizes a relatively new phenomenon, whereby espionage » assigns to external contractors « from certain countries ».
In his speech when deciding the sentence, Judge Hilliard said the use of the United Kingdom as a base for planning spy operations was a « very serious crime », which « undermines this country’s position to the Allies. » « The attack of journalists … undermines the freedom of the press, one of our main democratic values, » he added.
