Sofia court has given the start of a case against MP Vladimir Kuzov accuses of homosexual actions with a 13-year-old boy. Photo by Nadya Kotseva (Sofia Photo Agency)
Sofia court has given the start of a case against MP Vladimir Kuzov accused of homosexual actions with a 13-year-old boy.
To face court proceedings, the Parliament stripped him of the MP immunity earlier this year.
Kuzov has allegedly committed his crimes in the period between June and September of 2001, during the summer break from school, prosecutors say.
The child sex scandal involving the 40-year-old broke out in the beginning of the year, when a suspended investigation against Kuzov came back to the surface.
It emerged that there had been a probe, but it had to be cancelled when Vladimir Kuzov assumed a lawmaker post.
When confronted with a tape of one of the children that testified against him before the police, Kuzov denied the accusations, showing no emotion whatsoever.
The 13-year-old on the tape claimed that it was Kuzov indeed who came to him and offered him money in exchange for sexual favours. When shown a photo of Kuzov, the kid confirmed that this was the man, adding that he had seen him "without his tie on."
However, the claimant, who is now full age of 18, did not turn up at the courtroom on Friday, Darik News reported.
The lawmaker, who was expelled from his parliamentary group of Attack following the scandal, insists that the allegations against him have been made up, because he refused to take a bribe for voting for the socialist party's cabinet after last year's general elections.
"I am an easy target because he had been a pioneer in Parliament in many ways," Kuzov claims, because as the first folk singer in Parliament, he was not aware of the conniving schemes there.