Bulgaria's Socialists Flood Prosecution with Signals about Former Cabinet
Domestic | March 18, 2013, Monday| 826 views
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Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergey Stanishev speaking at Monday's press event. Photo by BGNES
The Bulgarian Socialist Party has filed 21 investigation requests with Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov, most of which have to do with the work of Bulgaria's previous cabinet led by center-right GERB party chair Boyko Borisov.
"Chief Prosecutor Tsatsarov has to show that the prosecution is an independent entity and not a political tool," said Socialist Party president Sergey Stanishev at a press event Monday.
Many of the investigation requests refer to alleged "abuse of power, corruption and financial schemes" of the former cabinet.
Some of the signals have to do with apparently excessive funds spend by former Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Naydenov on things such as publicity for campaigns by his ministry.
Others have to do with what the socialists believe to be inordinate raises in the prices of electric power and medicines in Bulgaria.
Among the most controversial issues raised by the leftists is the 2011 case in which ex-PM Boyko Borisov single-handedly stopped a customs inspection on a business held by Mihail Mihov, aka Misho Birata, who later died in suspicious circumstances.
"There is no European country apart from Bulgaria in which the PM would not resign right after the leaking of such information," said socialist leader Stanishev.
Back in 2011, the Misho Birata case was quickly hushed, in spite of then-PM Borisov's half-mouthed admission he was involved in it.
Monday Stanishev's current girlfriend Monika Yosifova also filed a request with Chief Prosecutor Tsatsarov asking to clarify whether there were any regulatory breaches in her PR work for Stanishev's 2005-9 cabinet.
Yosifova's name was implicated in the so-called Hochegger scandal, involving lobbyist Peter Hochegger, who had allegedly sourced funds paid to him by the Stanishev cabinet by hiring Yosifova as sub-contractor.
According to Yosifova, the ad hoc parliamentary committee on the Hochegger affair both overstepped their powers and failed to find any incriminating facts against her.
Tags: medicines, power, Miroslav Naydenov, Mihail Mihov, GERB, Bulgarian Socialist Party, Boyko Borisov, Sotir Tsatsarov, Peter Hochegger, Monika Yosifova, Misho Birata, Sergey Stanishev
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