MPs from all political parties have approached the National Special Surveillance Devices Oversight Office, according to the director of the unit.

Boyko Rashkov, as cited by the Bulgarian National Radio, presented Monday a report on the activities of the Office in the first 6 months of its existence.

He noted that the MPs had submitted applications requesting information on the use of special surveillance devices against them.

Rashkov announced that the unit had received a total of 15 applications from citizens who wanted to know whether special surveillance equipment had been used against them, adding that a total of 10 applications had so far been responded to.

He said that the authority had not detected a case of unauthorized use of special surveillance equipment, including in the probes launched on the request of MPs.

He said that the Office had also been contacted by the lawyer of former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, adding that no case of unauthorized use of special surveillance devices had been detected in this case too.

Rashkov declared that the authority had inspected 10 courts across the country, including ones in Vratsa, Pleven, Gabrovo, Lovech, Burgas, Varna, and some of the courts were found to have issued zero permits for the deployment of special surveillance devices.

Rashkov refused to specify the courts which had issued no wiretapping permits.

He said that the data indicated that the number of cases of special surveillance equipment deployment was decreasing over the past 2-3 years.

Rashkov also made clear that the Sofia District Court was currently being inspected.