Borislav Sarafov, Acting Prosecutor General of Bulgaria
A case of suspected murder-suicide involving six victims has triggered a wave of conspiracy theories and speculation in Bulgaria, reflecting endemic distrust of state institutions and growing political tension.
Six bodies, a burned-out mountain chalet and many unanswered questions.
For more than two weeks, the news in Bulgaria has been dominated by what authorities described as a “unprecedented” criminal case in the country’s history.”
On February 2nd, three men were found dead next to a partially burned-out chalet near the Petrohan Pass, close to the border with Serbia in western Bulgaria.
The owner of the chalet, Ivaylo Kalushev, together with a 22-year-old man and a 15-year-old teenager, were missing.
They all lived in the chalet and were part of the National Agency for Control of Protected Areas (NACPT), a Bulgarian non-governmental organization.
Comparison with the TV series ‘Twin Peaks’
As soon as news of the discovery broke, acting chief prosecutor Borislav Sarafov spoke to the press, describing the NGO’s activities as “profane.”
When a journalist suggested that what Sarafov was saying sounded like a “sectarian network involved in pedophilia“, the chief prosecutor replied: “You understood correctly”.
“Life sometimes offers circumstances more surprising than those in the ‘Twin Peaks’ series‘”, these.
The case that shocked a nation
The statements, none of which were immediately corroborated by evidence, opened a Pandora’s box of speculation about the NGO, with suggestions that it was a paramilitary group or even a Buddhist cult.
Six days later, on February 8, this speculation gained full force when the three missing were found dead in a van on Okoltchica Peak, about 80 km from the first crime scene.
The investigators’ main hypothesis was that there were four suicides and two homicides.
Who was the main protagonist?
Most speculation centers on Ivaylo Kalushevthe head of NACPT. Kalushev was a caver and forest ranger, having worked in both Bulgaria and Mexico.
It was confirmed that he and members of the organization patrolled the mountains of western Bulgaria, watching poachersillegal logging and potential human trafficking.
The head of Bulgaria’s criminal police confirmed that authorities had already worked together with Kalushev and his group.
Although Kalushev and other members of the group legally owned several weapons, authorities denied allegations that the NACPT operated as a paramilitary organization.
Accusations and complaints against the NACPT
Kalushev, a Buddhist, also welcomed children into the lodge with their parents’ consent, where they received instruction in caving, community life, and spiritual practices. In many cases, children stopped attending school regularly and started living in the accommodation.
After Kalushev’s death, a man who received instructions from him when he was a minor publicly stated, in an interview with the investigative outlet Bird, that he had been sexually abused by Kalushev as a child and who reported the case to the authorities in 2022.
His mother, on the other hand, accuses him of lying. In an interview with the YouTube channel Dneven red, he admits to giving Kalushev, whom he considered a “spiritual leader”, large amounts of money.
The institutional subplots that raise questions
The NGO has been reported to the competent authorities several times in the last four years. At least one of these reports included accusations that Kalushev had committed sexual acts or “acts of fornication”.
Nothing happened as a result of these reports, and no detailed investigation was carried out. However, according to reports made public by people close to Kalushev, information about the allegations was later disclosed to him, raising concerns about a possible source within authorities.
Contradictory statements about the number of cartridges found at the first crime scene, along with publicly released security camera footage from the inn showing the group saying goodbye on February 1, have further fueled conspiracy theories about the involvement of drug trafficking networks and even state authorities in the murders.
None of these allegations have been proven by official evidence.
Conspiracy theories proliferate
The case highlighted the profound distrust of the Bulgarian population in relation to the Public Ministry and the police.
Acting Prosecutor General Sarafov, for example, is extremely unpopular in Bulgaria. Yours pass rate was just 4% in December, according to a survey by Alpha Research.
At the same time, political parties are instrumentalizing the tragedy, as the country prepares for Bulgaria’s eighth early elections in just five years. The election is scheduled for April.
Tragedy used as a political tool
Amid all these allegations and counter-allegations, the parties in power have used the case and the accusations to attack the PP-DB opposition alliance, noting that, during their period in government, the Ministry of the Environment signed a non-binding memorandum with Kalushev’s organization.
“From an institutional point of view, this is a symbol of how such cases can be used for purposes other than those of a criminal prosecution, including for denigrate political opponents“, Andrey Yankulov, lawyer and legal expert at the Anti-Corruption Fund, told DW.
Yankulov relates the public’s distrust of public authorities to many situations in which the Public Ministry made unjustified statements about cases that were never subsequently confirmed by judicial convictions.
It is widely accepted that the lack of convictions is the result of political influence about prosecutors and judges in different cases over the last decade.
As a result of the political attacks, critics say the political debate has strayed from crucial questions: Could authorities have prevented the murders if they had investigated the allegations in time? What was their relationship with the organization? And what are the reasons behind the tragedy?
“One thing is certain: the initial reactions of the acting chief prosecutor and investigators facilitated the spread of conspiracy theoriesas they encouraged journalists and the public to read between the lines,” Georgi Marchev, journalist and media instructor, told DW.
Can trust be rebuilt?
According to Yankulov, himself a former prosecutor, restoring faith in institutions will require personnel changes and greater efficiency.
Bulgaria, together with Hungary, appears as the most corrupt country in the EU in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
“When institutional independence becomes a reality, the prerequisites may exist for society to trust what institutions say,” Yankulov told DW, adding that he hopes that “the link between institutions and society will nothas not been broken“.
