Tell HN: IT security expert Dancho Danchev is placed in a psychiatric hospital
According to bulgarian newspaper Dnevnik (http://www.dnevnik.bg/tehnologii/2011/01/17/1026425_ekspertut_po_it_sigurnost_dancho_danchev_e_nastanen_v/) IT security expert Dancho Danchev is placed in a psychiatric hospital.
Dancho Danchev, an expert on cybersecurity, is placed in a psychiatric hospital in Bulgaria. The information was confirmed by two sources of "Dnevnik", although from the hospital refused comment.
[...]
[...] according to reliable source of Dnevnik he was placed in a Bulgarian psychiatric hospital since December 11.
Here is complete Google Translate version of the article: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=bg&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnevnik.bg%2Ftehnologii%2F2011%2F01%2F17%2F1026425_ekspertut_po_it_sigurnost_dancho_danchev_e_nastanen_v%2F
(Edited couple of times to fix links, then read the help on links: "Urls become links, except in the text field of a submission.")
This is, of course, one of the old Soviet techniques dealing with "undesirables"...declare them insane and put them away in mental institutions.
Obviously without any details it's possible that he does have mental problems.
For others who did not see the article from ZDNet earlier, asking for help finding Danchev: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/we-need-help-with-the-str...
A quick google yields a report by human rights group Bulgarian Helsinki on the conditions in Bulgarian Psychiatric Hospitals:
http://www.bghelsinki.org/campaign/abuses_dw.doc
and also a BBC article on the terrible conditions:
Perhaps it's Google translate missing some words, but who placed him in the hospital? Was in voluntary?
This reminds me of ``A Beautiful Mind'' as well.
Tracing the story feels like reading a Robert Ludlum book! I am not surprised to see a movie based on this in the future.