Bulgaria's Energy Minister Faces Prosecutors

Crime | May 3, 2007, Thursday // 00:00
Bulgaria: Bulgaria's Energy Minister Faces Prosecutors Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov spent more than an hour with prosecutors on Thursday. Photo by Kameliya Atanasova (Sofia Photo Agency)

Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov spent more than an hour with prosecutors on Thursday, explaining how his name got involved in a corruption scandal that reached its peak the previous day.

Chief Investigator Anguel Alexandrov accused Ovcharov Wednesday of having pressured him into dropping cases and used middlemen to threaten him.

"I found out that I was the owner of the country, now I also realised I was the biggest bully in this republic," Ovcharov said, commenting Alexandrov's accusations.

The minister said the whole case showed that the state system in Bulgaria was crumbling to pieces and that someone is using the power of one institution foe dirty games. This game isn't political, Ovcharov claimed, it is purely criminal.

According to Ovcharov, Alexandrov attacked him, because someone had "created the illusion that there is a lot of money in Bulgartabac and he was the one who had to pocket it all."

Earlier on Thursday the opposition in Bulgaria's Parliament asked for Ovcharov's immediate dismissal until the prosecutor's check against him is complete.

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