Sofia's Prosecutor's Office Uninvolved in Customs Agency Head Spying

Politics » DOMESTIC | January 12, 2011, Wednesday // 14:51
Bulgaria: Sofia's Prosecutor's Office Uninvolved in Customs Agency Head Spying GERB front-bench MPs Iskra Fidosova (L), Menda Stoyanova (C) and Customs Agency director Vanyo Tanov (R). Photos by BGNES

Sofia's Prosecutor's Office has not launched a legal procedure against the Bulgarian Customs Agency head Vanyo Tanov and no order has been issued for wiretapping him.

This piece of information was shared with the Bulgarian media on Wednesday with regard to the recently erupted spying scandal, involving a media leak of Tanov's recorded phone conversations with Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, Djankov's deputy Vladislav Goranov, as well as a transcript of his alleged conversations two MPs from the ruling centrist GERB party.

In the tapes, Tanov states that Tsvetanov has wanted to appoint "his own people" at the Customs Agency. According to the transcripts, GERB MPs Iskra Fidosova and Menda Stoyanova have tried to lobby with Tanov to hire their candidates at key Customs positions.

The statement of the Bulgarian capital's Prosecutor's Office means that there is either a legal procedure against the Bulgarian Customs Agincy head in some other Bulgarian Prosecutors' office, or some special police or National Security Agency unit has ordered the use of special surveillance devices on him.

There is a third possibility, as it is still unclear whether the recordings are the result of legal or recorded as a part of a "private" initiative, according to Sofia's Prosecutor's Office.

The tapes were released last week at a news conference by the Galeria weekly, a paper believed to be the mouthpiece of Aleksei Petrov, former special agent of the State National Security Agency DANS, (currently under house arrest), who has been investigated on organized crime charges. On Monday, the marginal conservative RZS party, which is believed to have close ties with Petrov, shared the transcripts of Tanov's conversations with the two GERB MPs.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

Domestic » Be a reporter: Write and send your article
Tags: Bulgarian Customs Agency, Vanyo Tanov, Simeon Djankov, GERB, special surveillance devices, spying

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria