Tsvetan Tsvetanov, former Interior Minister and Deputy Chair of center-right party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), has apologized to the three doctors from the hospital in Gorna Oryahovitsa for reading transcripts of wiretapped conversations suggesting that they were to blame for the death of a baby.

On May 14, Bulgaria's prosecuting authority terminated pre-trial proceedings against the three Bulgarian doctors involved in a 2010 scandal concerning a baby's death.

The case gained notoriety as then-Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov blamed the death of a newborn at the hospital in Gorna Oryahovitsa on the three doctors, reading transcripts from wiretapped conversations between the medics in Parliament in end-November 2010.

After the District Prosecutor's Office in Veliko Tarnovo terminated the pre-trial proceedings against the medics due to the lack of evidence of a crime, they said that they would not sue Tsvetanov for the insult and personal injuries but added that they expected an official apology.

In a Friday interview for private TV station bTV, Tsvetanov apologized to the three doctors, Stefan Lazarov, Katya Getsova, Mihail Milatovitch, and the director of the maternity ward, Dimitar Sotirov.

Tsvetanov went on to explain that he had asked former Prime Minister and GERB leader Boyko Borisov to not include him in the next GERB government so that he had the opportunity to clear his name and prove his innocence.

Tsvetanov's name was recently involved in a number of scandals, including a special police operation which uncovered 350 000 illegally printed ballots at a printing house owned by an alleged ally of Tsvetanov just hours ahead of the May 12 parliamentary elections, as well as a scandal involving unauthorized use of special surveillance devices against businessmen and high-profile politicians during Tsvetanov's term in office as Interior Minister.

"Did anybody investigate whether I conducted illegal wiretapping" Tsvetanov asked.

"The chronological order of events shows that the prosecuting authority was used in this scandal," he stated, adding that he was left with good impressions from the work of Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov, but that he was prepared for everything, including an arrest.

He further suggested that the Bulgarian Socialist Party and alleged organized crime boss Alexei Petrov had staged a campaign aimed at deposing the head of the Interior Ministry's chief directorate for combatting organised crime (GDBOP), Stanimir Florov, adding that the next victim of the attack was Kalin Georgiev, Chief Secretary of the Interior.

Tsvetanov argued that the election campaign had developed according to a scenario aimed at discrediting center-right party GERB and preventing him from getting another term in office as Interior Minister "because I am not a convenient person and because of the ties between the oligarchy, organized crime, and political parties."

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