Bulgaria Former PM Denies Wrongdoing in Leak Scandal

Bulgaria’s former Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev was interrogated by prosecutors on Wednesday for the leak of a classified report on organized crime, which has shattered the state.

“After the report left the government, I personally took it back to the National State Security Agency (DANS), where a commission for checking the information was established. I have not seen the report since then,” Sergey Stanishev told journalists.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announced on Saturday that he had received the report from former secret service agent Alexey Petrov, who used to advise former DANS director Petko Sertov.

Stanishev said he had no idea why the report ended up in the hands of Alexey Petrov. He insisted that a check is made on whether the report has been really handed over to Borisov by Alexey Petrov as the prime minister claims.

The Socialist leader expressed the hope that the prosecutor's office will do its job properly despite what he called “the unprecedented pressure” of Boyko Borisov.

“This is something that even Todor Zhivkov has never done,” Stanishev said, referring to the country's disgraced communist leader.

The year-old top secret report by the National Security Agency (DANS), which sheds light on the influence of criminal organizations within certain ministries and state agencies, leaked over the weekend and ended up published online on Monday evening.

The former director of the Bulgarian State National Security Agency (DANS) Petko Sertov, who is one of the key figures mentioned in the report, will be recalled in days from Thessaloniki, where he is serving as a consul.

Aleksei Petrov was the first to be questioned at Sofia City Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday. He said he has “no worries and concerns”.

According to Borisov, the report, written a year ago, was labeled as the copy sent to the prime minister. How it ended up with Petrov is unclear.

The premier said his predecessor Stanishev obtained the document last year but did not return it to the relevant department at the council of ministers and the report disappeared after that.

Under security protocols, all copies of confidential reports are to be returned to the security agency. Borisov said he has ordered experts to first determine whether the report is genuine.

If so, this will put Borisov's predecessor, Sergey Stanishev, leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, in direct violation of the law.

The new Prime Ministerhas urged prosecutors to charge his predecessor Sergei Stanishev and others for the leak of the report, saying it exposed the Balkan country’s inability to tame organised crime.