Leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms Delyan Peevski called on Monday for the government and all relevant institutions, including the National Assembly, to cooperate in order to demand MEP Elena Yoncheva to negotiate the release of the Bulgarian sailors from the cargo ship Galaxy Leader.
In a party statement, Peevski stated that the ship's captain, Lyubomir Chanev, and first mate, Danail Veselinov, both Bulgarians, had been kept captive for over a year. "It ought to be a duty of every statesperson to do everything necessary to help Bulgarian nationals in distress abroad," he stressed.
In September, Yoncheva stated that she had met with the two Bulgarians in Yemen. The meeting took place off the Galaxy Leader, in a room selected by the Houthis for security reasons.
The vessel, a roll-on/roll-off vehicle carrier, was seized on 19 November, 2023 by Houthi rebels under the guise of solidarity with Palestine amid an ongoing genocide.