The Bulgarian Parliament voted Thursday to set up an investigation committee in order to throw light upon the case involving the alleged Serbian drug boss Budimir Kujovic who was issued a fake Bulgarian passport.

The governing coalition majority led by the Bulgarian Socialist Party voted for proportional representation of the parliamentary parties at the committee while the rightist opposition insisted on parity representation, i.e. equal number of members from all parties.

The opposition also demanded that the investigation committee be authorized to investigate in general whether drug trafficking channels in Bulgaria are under certain political "umbrellas", and whether certain police services officials are involved with synthetic drugs production and distribution. This demand was rejected by the majority.

MP from Democrats for Strong Bulgaria Atanas Atanasov announced an Interior Ministry report had been read to the parliamentary Interior Committee saying no synthetic drugs were produced in Bulgaria in 2007. "This is absurd but the newly formed committee will not be able to check it since it is not authorized", Atanasov said.

The parliamentary investigation committee will be headed by the senior partner in the governing coalition the Bulgarian Socialist Party and its MP Nadka Baleva

On January 25, Bulgaria's prosecution closed the file over alleged Serbian drug smuggler Budimir Kujovich, who was issued a Bulgarian passport despite a ban to enter the country. It concluded there was no evidence that high-ranking officials in the Interior Ministry protect the production of synthetic drugs in Bulgaria and drug trafficking through the borders.

The scandal sparked after Kujovic was arrested on December 30 in Bulgaria on suspicions of masterminding a drug smuggling channel, with customs officers seizing 60 kilograms of heroin at the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint.

The arrest came as a surprise, as Kujovic had Bulgarian identification documents despite the imposed 10-year ban to enter the country, which he got in 2005 over accusations of running a laboratory for production of synthetic drugs.

The governing coalition parliamentary majority also rejected the motion of the extreme right Ataka party to create another special committee to investigate the controversial Trakiya highway concession deal.

The highway concession was awarded by the previous cabinet of PM Simeon Saxe-Coburg to a Portuguese-Bulgarian consortium without tender but was stopped by the EU for provisions containing illegal state aid in March 2007. Bulgaria was then made to wait for months for clearance from the Eurostat regarding the amended concession contract.

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