PRESS RELEASE OF SOFIA CITY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE

18 March 2022

With regard to actions carried out under investigation by the General Directorate National Police on 17.03.2022 against politicians, the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office notifies the following:

We recall that after 10 o’clock today Sofia City Prosecutor's Office received a fax notification from an investigating police officer from the General Directorate National Police.

The notification states that on March 17, 2022 pre-trial proceedings were instituted under Art. 212, para. 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code - with the first act of the investigation interrogation of a witness and subsequent searches and seizures.

The pre-trial proceedings were instituted for a crime under Art. 213a, para. 3, item 2 and item 5, in conjunction with para. 1 of the Penal Code, namely that in the period from 2014 to December 2019, in Sofia, in order to force another person to dispose of an item or his right, or to assume a property obligation, threatened him by violence, disclosure of disgraceful circumstances, damage of property or other illegal action with grave consequences for him or his relatives, as the act was committed by or with the participation of an official and significant property damages were caused.

By this fax SCPO was also informed about the detention by the order of the Ministry of Interior Act (for a period of up to 24 hours) of the persons Boyko Borisov, Vladislav Goranov and Sevdalina Arnaudova.

Later in the day materials on the case were reported.

In particular, the interrogation of six witnesses has been reported so far in the SCPO, including the Prime Minister, Mr. Kiril Petkov. His interrogation was the first act of the investigation to initiate the pre-trial proceedings.

Mr. Petkov told about the publicly announced meeting held on March 16, 2022 with Ms. Laura Koveshi, during which they discussed the case related to the public allegations of Vasil Bozhkov that he was blackmailed by Boyko Borisov, Sevdalina Arnaudova and Vladislav Goranov.

The testimony of the Prime Minister, Mr. Kiril Petkov, reproduces only these media-known statements of Vasil Bozhkov, without specifying or completing them with new circumstances.

Vasil Bozhkov himself was not questioned as a witness in the case.

The next actions taken by the Ministry of Interior were the searches of the addresses of Boyko Borisov, Vladislav Goranov and Sevdalina Arnaudova, for which a total of three protocols were drawn up, which the SCPO submitted to the court for approval.

Today, other people were interrogated, some of them are related to Vasil Bozhkov - a defendant in a case of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office, hiding in Dubai and listed in the Magnitsky list.

An employee of Vasil Bozhkov's company was interrogated, who testified that Vasil Bozhkov knew Boyko Borisov and Vladislav Goranov and held meetings with both. The witness emphasized that he had not personally attended any of these meetings. In the testimony of the mentioned witness there is information that Vasil Bozhkov had significant personal funds, but did not tell him what he spent them on, nor that was he blackmailed.

A manager of Vasil Bozhkov's companies was interrogated, who gave detailed information about the way Vasil Bozhkov operated with the company's finances. The witness explicitly stated that he had never been assigned to visit state institutions for the purpose of carrying money and that he had never accompanied Mr Bozhkov on his visits to the Ministry of Finance and the State Gambling Commission.

An employee of the Ministry of Finance was interrogated as a witness, who gave information about meetings between Vladislav Goranov and Vasil Bozhkov in the minister's office. The witness explicitly states that Vasil Bozhkov always came only with a cigar in his hands. He did not carry bags, envelopes or other luggage.

As a witness, a former MP, a member of the Budget Committee in the Parliament, was interrogated, who gave information about the discussion of changes in the Gambling Act. This witness points Ms Menda Stoyanova as a political opponent, who did not support his legislative proposals and personally assumes that this is the result of the influence of Vasil Bozhkov, Boyko Borisov and Vladislav Goranov.

Vasil Bozhkov's former partner was interrogated as a witness, who stated that Vasil Bozhkov had met with Boyko Borisov and Vladislav Goranov many times, specifying that he had not attended these meetings. The witness added that Vasil Bozhkov had not share with him the connection on the meetings and added that Bozhkov often took envelopes with money in him before the visits. However, there is no information about what happened to this money.

After carefully reading the original materials, the supervising prosecutors found that the case had not been reported in its entirety. At around 2:30 am, the SCPO received additional materials that will be the subject of additional analysis, as they are mainly related to the organization of the work of the National Service for Protection and photos extracted from media publications.

The SCPO also demanded the orders for detention of the three persons under the Ministry of Interior Act, which were also received around 8:30 pm. As can be seen from the orders, the three persons had already been released, Boyko Borisov released at 7:30 pm, Vladislav Goranov at 6:56 pm, and Sevdalina Arnaudova at 7:25 pm. as a proposal and a draft decree for attracting accused persons were not reported in the SCPO. Supervising prosecutors continue awaiting the any other available materials.

Based on the body of evidence thus described, the supervising prosecutors considered that a possible indictment would be in violation of the law. The materials provided to the SCPO so far do not contain sufficient evidence from which it can be reasonably assumed that any of the three persons, Boyko Borisov, Vladislav Goranov and Sevdalina Arnaudova, has committed a crime.

There is no obstacle in the further course of the investigation and in gathering sufficient indictment evidence to change this conclusion.

Apart from that, the SCPO considers that the performed procedural-investigative actions are vitiated.

It was established that two of the three persons in part of the incriminated period - 2014 - December 2019, are respectively Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. Therefore, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office considers that the procedural-investigative actions were carried out by an incompetent investigative body, which is a significant procedural violation. Even before the start of the urgent actions of investigation, the bodies of the Ministry of the Interior had preliminary information that this was an act in which persons, members of the Council of Ministers, were possibly involved. This is evident from the duration of the inspection, from the report describing the grounds for initiating the proceeding, the operative part of the initiation, the first seizures investigation (interrogation of a witness), the persons against whom the searches and seizures were conducted (which persons were detained under the Ministry of Interior Act). At the same time, the Prosecutor's Office was not notified in order to seek an opinion and/or instructions on how to carry out the actions lawfully.

According to Article 194, para 1, item 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code, crimes committed by members of the Council of Ministers shall be investigated only by investigator. The principle statement is that the investigator does not intervene in the proceedings only when an accusation was brought, but from the very beginning. It is highly questionable from a legal point of view whether the police authorities can perform actions of urgency in such cases (even if there is а reason for it) - provided that there is an investigator on duty.

Apart from that, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office considers that in the present case there was not of urgency to allow an investigative body to initiate pre-trial proceedings. According to the constant practice of the court, as well as the criminal procedure doctrine, those cases are of urgency, in which certain evidence should be immediately fixed, collected and preserved so that not to be lost. In the current situation, the police authorities have been conducting an investigation for several months, in connection with information published in the media for years. It is alleged that the act for which the pre-trial proceedings were initiated was committed more than two years ago.

Despite all, the protocols from the searches and seizures were submitted by the supervising prosecutors for approval to the Sofia City Court, which has jurisdiction to rule on their legality.

Active actions will be taken in the case and the Bulgarian society will be informed about.