Are you aware that Bulgaria abuses Interpol’s system just like rogue states like Russia and Turkey?

In a two-part guest blog for the Red Notice Monitor, a blog specialized in reporting on Interpol abuse, I explain in detail four cases in which the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (the CCF) has established prosecution in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Bulgaria. The Red Notice Monitor is edited by leading experts in human rights, extradition, and Interpol abuse in the UK.

Sadly, I wrote this blog as a witness of these Interpol abuses. Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s Office weaponized Interpol’s system against me and my family in an attempt to intimidate us and silence us. However, we successfully appealed against the politically motivated persecution by Bulgaria before the CCF.

Our story shows how easy it is for states acting in bad faith to harass inconvenient people. In the case of Bulgaria, this is possible because of loopholes in Interpol’s Rules on the Processing of Data and because of structural dysfunctionalities of Bulgaria’s justice system allowing the Prosecutor’s Office to act with impunity. Indeed, in the 21st century, politically motivated persecution takes place in the European Union.

In Part One of my blog, I explain how Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s Office had a personalized strategy on how to manipulate Interpol’s system against each member of my family. Regrettably, Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s Office does not use Red Notices to pursue legitimate law enforcement aims. Instead, it misrepresents these notices as an international endorsement of its bogus proceedings and uses them as a lynching tool against inconvenient people in tarnishing media campaigns it orchestrates.

In Part Two of my blog, I describe how we were able to successfully appeal against the politically motivated Red Notices and Diffusions before Interpol’s CCF. As I hope that lessons could be drawn from this nightmare, I conclude my blog with an analysis of the gaps in Interpol’s processes which initially permitted these abuses and which would hopefully be addressed by future reforms.