In the column “On the Tracks”, Veronika Dimitrova talks about the trade in grave sites, racketeering, extortion, allegations of corpses being picked and burial in the Central Sofia Cemetery. A recording was provided to NOVA, requesting BGN 3,000 for “preserving a grave site”. But such a concept does not exist in the law. Our team checks on the spot and sees that the cemetery staff have let themselves be meters away from the mourners while a funeral is taking place.
And what’s more, it turns out that everything is turned into a business – absolutely everything is removed from the bodies of the deceased – gold jewelry and teeth, clothes are removed before cremation and given to second-hand shops. Absolutely everything is for sale. Complaints that come to the administration of the cemetery park are thrown away.
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The incident was reported by Galin Tsokov, son of the deceased. He shows a recording in which the undertaker Borislav Metodiev asks him for BGN 3,000 to reserve a burial place next to his mother. Otherwise, he threatens to call in an excavator and demolish it. After making the video footage, Galin goes to the director of the Central Sofia Cemetery to file a report.
“Apparently she was not surprised that such things were happening there. I explained to her that there are people who want money, I have documents and asked if I file a report, is she ready to remove them. She replied that their salary was very low and they found a way to make extra money. He told me: “If we kick them out, there will be no one to work,” Tsokov said.
Upon arrival, the NOVA team found the employees having fun watching the dawn. When Metodiev notices them, he tries to attack them, in his extremely aggressive behavior he denies that he took the money, but it is clear that he asked for it.
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The director of the Sofia cemetery, Yana Paskaleva, denies knowing about the case and saying that wages are low and there are no workers. After NOVA’s insistence, the director called Metodiev and demanded written explanations from him. Pascaleva fires the undertaker and punishes his colleagues with a remark.
In addition to gravediggers extorting money from loved ones, elderly people have been forced to withdraw savings, former cemetery park officials say. They want anonymity because they are afraid.
“To prove that the monument of your loved one is really for replacement, they shake it violently, often they tear it open in front of your eyes, but this is done very carefully and when the threatened person is an elderly person and most often a woman,” explains an anonymous former employee. Paskaleva says she has taken all measures.
Old monuments are also being removed to be sold and used for new ones. When the next of kin of the person who was buried first at the designated location asked for help because they couldn’t find their plaque, they were told they didn’t know where it was, or they were given directions to a place with their monument, but it was empty. This is what the former employees also say.
From their accounts it is clear that there are no cameras in the crematorium and this makes it easy to remove gold ornaments and teeth, clothes and resell them again. “When expensive coffins are bought, before the cremation, the coffins are changed and in fact the person goes for cremation with a cheap one, and the expensive one for 2-3-5 thousand BGN is resold”, they add.
See more in the video.
2023-11-24 06:50:04
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