The Appellate Prosecutor's Office in Bulgaria's central city of Veliko
Tarnovo, overturned Monday the decision of the Regional Prosecutor's
Office in Lovech to stop the probe of possible legal violations in the
Devetashka cave.
The appellate prosecutors ordered a new probe in the cave.
At the end of November, a Bulgarian zoologist alarmed that the bat
population in the Bulgarian Devetashka Cave, a key spot for spending the
winter season, has been reduced to 1/4 by the recent filming of the
Hollywood blockbuster "Expendables 2."
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The Devetashka Cave, located in central northern Bulgaria, houses for
the winter a key European bat colony, with many endangered species
protected in the country and Europe.
An excessive number of dead bats were found after the shooting of "The
Expendables 2," claimed environmentalists.
It was reported that the European Commission has sent a letter to the
Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters, inquiring information on
the case with the dead bats in the Devetashka cave.
Experts of the Ministry and of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BAS,
conducted their own probe and announced that the majority of bats were
found to be in hibernation and the dead ones were within the norm of the
usual mortality rate.
The Veliko Tarnovo Appellate Prosecutor's Office decided Monday that
their Lovech colleagues had failed to fulfill their duties to check the
cave during the filming of the movie and the issued permit, despite
being alerted about possible violations.
With this decision, the Veliko Tarnovo prosecutors become the first
State authority to side with the environmentalists in their claims the
Environmental Ministry had failed to counter the violations.
The eco activists remain unwavering in their fight.
