Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Bugged - Report

Politics » DOMESTIC | December 3, 2010, Friday // 11:38
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Bugged - Report Photo dated August 2009 showing the Kalina Ilieva (R) as newly-appointed head of Bulgaria's Agriculture Fund, and Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Naydenov (L). Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov's phone conversations have been reportedly tapped for more than 6 months as a result of a signal from the discredited former head of the Agriculture Fund, Kalina Ilieva.,

In one of the emails which Ilieva has sent to EU's anti-fraud agency OLAF, she allegedly stated that Naydenov has pressed her to pass certain Rural Development projects. As a result, Bulgaria's National Security Agency (DANS) has started investigating him, according to the "24 chasa" daily.

On Thursday, Naydenov made a statement, wondering why Ilieva had sent as many as 400 signals for possible frauds in the absorption of agriculture funds in Bulgaria during her mere one year in office, thus blocking important projects.

"Here you have a situation in which the thief cries out "Thief!"," the Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture exclaimed.

Naydenov's words come in the wake of a string of statements in which senior government officials have attempted to distance themselves from Ilieva or plain out attack her.

The wave of scandals involving Kalina Ilieva erupted last week, when it turned out that her diploma from the Berlin Technical Institute is forged.

Previously, she lied she had a tumor and was very ill in an attempt to conceal her pregnancy, which led to her removal from the post in October.

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Tags: Miroslav Naydenov, Kalina Ilieva, tapped, investigation, emails, OLAF

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