The Public Communication Directorate calls on the Chairman of a political party to apologize for his serial false and insulting allegations addressed to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria.

28 July 2020

The Public Communication Directorate calls on the Chairman of a political party to apologize for his serial false and insulting allegations addressed to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria.

With regard to a series of untruths and false allegations made in recent days by Hristo Lyubomirov Ivanov, Chairman of a political party, the Public Communication Directorate finds it necessary to clarify the objective truth.

On 16 July 2020, during a visit to the town of Shivachevo in connection with a specialized operation on countering the so-called "conventional crime" the Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev was not recorded by an employee of the directorate talking to a victim of crime, including "an elderly woman, victim of sexual offence". These are false suggestions made by Hristo Lyubomirov Ivanov. Such a meeting had not been held at all. It becomes clear from a short video posted on the official YouTube channel of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria that the Prosecutor General spoke with residents of Shivachevo, expressing his regret for a serious crime committed in the town and talking to them about the actions taken for detecting the crime and preventing of such crimes in the future. It is evident from a press announcement, sent to the media on 16 July 2020, as the same, along with the video, were published on the website of the PORB. Nowhere in the profile of the Prosecutor General on the social network Twitter, was stated that Ivan Geshev had talked to the victim of the crime.

Despite these completely accessible and easily verifiable facts, in his interviews of 23 July 2020, with Diana Yankulova for the broadcasting "12 + 4" on BNR  program "Horizon" and with Tsvetanka Rizova for the broadcasting "Face to Face" on bTV, Hristo Lyubomirov Ivanov deliberately mislead journalists and the relevant audience, as with his statements as a party leader, he exerted political pressure on the independence of the Prosecution, undermined the prestige of the judiciary and violated the constitutional order of separation of powers.

Apart from the listeners and spectators, it turns out that Hristo Lyubomirov Ivanov also misled the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, through whom on 22 July 2020 he sent the so-called "signal" to the Minister of Justice alleging for violations of the Constitution, the Judicial System Act and the Code of Ethics for the Behaviour of Bulgarian Magistrates. In his signal, Hristo Lyubomirov Ivanov made an untrue statement that “on 16 July 2020 in an announcement and video shared on the social network Twitter, Mr. Geshev published shots and a conversation with an elderly woman, a victim of sexual violence. The video footage and the statement of the Prosecutor General, made explicitly by his team, show the face of the victim of sexual violence, without being aimed at prosecuting the committed crime and were published only to seek a PR effect. "In fact these untruths reveal the complete groundlessness and insignificance of the so-called "signal" from Hristo Lyubomirov Ivanov.

The Public Communication Directorate calls on Hristo Lyubomirov Ivanov, chairman of a political party, to apologize for his serial false and insulting allegations addressed to the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria.