Following a notification from the National Bureau of Statistics concerning the dissemination of false data of the population census taken last year, the General Police Inspectorate started a criminal case over falsification of information that is punished with up to five years in prison, IPN reports.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO), the investigation into this case will be conducted by the General Police Inspectorate’s Center for Combating Cyber Crime, under the guidance of the specialized division of the PGO. The investigators are to establish all the circumstances of this case, to identify the persons who disseminated false information and to bring them to justice.

Earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics made public the preliminary census data. From an unofficial email address, the media outlets received information about the ethnicity, nationality and language spoken by the population. The Bureau denied having sent such data.