Bulgarian former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov. Photo by BGNES
Former Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who is to face illegal wiretapping charges, has allegedly hired a high-profile German lawyer to defend him.
Tsvetanov has refused to reveal the lawyer’s name to the local Standart daily.
The paper has described the former Interior Minister’s attorney as a “prominent German security expert.”
On Thursday, Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov formally requested that Tsvetanov be stripped of his immunity as lawmaker.
Tsvetanov, who is a key official of the center-right GERB party, faces charges of failing to exercise proper control over the use of special surveillance devices during his term in office.
The former Interior Minister may face up to 8 years in jail if proven guilty.
The “Bulgarian Watergate” scandal unfurled at the end of March when Sergey Stanishev, leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), submitted a tipoff to Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov about alleged illegal wiretapping of politicians, businesspeople and magistrates which had taken place during the rule of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's center-right GERB party (2009-2013).