Date: 05 November 2009
The applicant, Nikolai Georgiev Kolev, now deceased, was a Bulgarian national who was born in 1949. A high-ranking prosecutor, Mr Kolev was in conflict with Mr F., the Chief Public Prosecutor of Bulgaria, and alleged that the latter had launched a campaign of repression against him. Mr Kolev was dismissed in January 2001 and in June 2001 was arrested and detained on drugs charges. In 2001 and 2002 Mr Kolev also publicly stated that he feared for his life, claiming that the Chief Public Prosecutor was planning to have him killed. Mr Kolev was shot dead in December 2002; his assassin has never been identified. Relying on Article 5 §§ 1, 3 and 4 (right to liberty and security), Mr Kolev complained that his detention in June 2001 was unlawful and unjustified, claiming that the drugs had been planted on him and the criminal proceedings against him fabricated in order to silence him. Mr Kolev’s widow, daughter and son, who maintained the application after his death, further complain that the investigation into their husband and father’s murder was neither independent nor effective, in breach of Article 2 (right to life), as it was under the control of Mr F., the Chief Public Prosecutor.
(from the official press-release prepared by the Registry Office of the European Court of Human Rights)
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