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Bulgaria's national security agency and prosecutors raided the Agriculture Ministry in March in an investigation into large-scale illegal land deals. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency
The Bulgarian state has swapped mainly forest land close to the seacoast for private plots in the mountainous regions of the country since the beginning of the year, officials announced on Friday.
The announcement was made by the State Forest Agency head Stefan Yurukov weeks after Bulgaria's national security agency and prosecutors raided the Agriculture Ministry over a tip-off for large-scale illegal land swaps, one of the most widely spread corruption schemes.
Yurukov said the deals sealed by the beginning of the year were no more than 47, but they will not be made public.
A the end of March it emerged that Bulgaria's agriculture minister has approved more than three hundred deals, in which state-owned land was swapped for private plots in less attractive or lower-priced parts of the country.
The figure is three times higher than the initially announced number of a hundred and twenty, which the press office of the ministry attributed to "a technical mistake".
Prosecutors have alleged that documents for such deals have been backdated.
Bulgaria's parliament imposed a ban on all land swaps in January under pressure from dozens of environmental groups.
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Architect, Georgiy Stanishev, brother of Bulgaria's former Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev, firmly denies taking part in any scandalous land swaps on the Black Sea coast.
Bulgaria's Deputy Agriculture Minister, Svetlana Boyanova, has firmly denied Wednesday she had signed the controversial deal for the sale of State lands on the Black Sea coast under pressure.
A close friend of Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, has been linked to the scandal that flared in Bulgaria just hours before the arrival of the New Year 2013, over reports illegal construction was going on in a protected coas
I feel no moral guilt towards anyone. This was stated by Kiril Petkov, answering a question whether he would apologize to the Bulgarian people for violating the Constitution.
Head of the Military Medical Academy (MMA) Major General Prof.
The Ministry of Finance has revised its autumn forecast for economic development.
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