Bulgaria Defector Missing, Swedish Newspaper Says

A member of the Bulgarian Parliament who defected to Sweden last year mysteriously disappeared after being visited in a hospital by Bulgarian diplomats, a Swedish newspaper reported on Sunday.

Svenska Dagbladet quoted police inspector Leif Ohman as saying the man defected during a conference in Finland last year and was sent from there to Sweden. Ohman did not name the man but said he represented an independent farmers’ party in Parliament.

“He was very critical of events in Bulgaria,” Ohman said. He said that shortly after arriving in Sweden, the man was taken ill and admitted to a Stockholm hospital.

While there, he telephoned Swedish police to complain that he had been visited by representatives of the Bulgarian embassy “who had behaved strangely.” Some days later, the man left the hospital with two unidentified people.

“That’s the last we’ve heard of him. He disappeared without a trace. The only thing left behind is his passport,” said Ohman. He did not specify when the man had disappeared.