Supreme Bulgarian Court Closes Case of Missing Presidential Decree

Politics » DOMESTIC | March 1, 2012, Thursday // 12:49
Bulgaria: Supreme Bulgarian Court Closes Case of Missing Presidential Decree File photo

The Supreme Administrative Court (VAS) has conclusively refused to initiate proceedings for restoring the Bulgarian citizenship to Interpol-sought Russian Kosntantin Tsiganov.

Through its Wednesday ruling, the court resolved the issue of the missing presidential decree authorizing Vice President Angel Marin to grant, suspend or restore citizenship, to grant pardons, etc, during the second term in office.

Tsiganov, alleged Russian mafia thug, contested the suspension of his citizenship before VAS, claiming that it was invalid due to the lack of the authorizing decree.

VAS, however, cancelled the claim of the Russian national, noting that the power to grant, suspend or restore citizenship had been delegated to Marin in 2002 and the decree had no expiration date.

Marin had based his decisions for granting or suspending citizenship on the decree from 2002, which could not be appealed in court, VAS said.

VAS also made it clear that the issue of the missing decree issued by Georgi Parvanov would not be referred to the Constitutional Court because there was no contradiction between the law and the Constitution in the case of the revoked naturalization of Tsiganov.

Tsiganov made headlines in Bulgaria after by a publication in the controversial, anti-government Galeria weekly, released in the beginning of 2012, featuring a photo of Borisov playing football with the Russian mafioso.

The article informed that the match had taken place on August 27, 2008, when Boyko Borisov was mayor of Sofia.

The publication in Galeria said that the match played between Borisov and Tsiganov had been sponsored with BGN 50 000 from the Russian thug, while Borisov had been familiar with Tsiganov's background.

Asked to comment on the matter, Borisov said that he did not know Tsiganov and that the allegations were being distributed to discredit him.

Tsiganov is said to be the head of the Russian crime group Uralmash and has been wanted by the Russian authorities since 2003 and by the Interpol since 2006.

He was granted Bulgarian citizenship in 2001.

Ten years later, he was expelled from Bulgaria and was banned from re-entering the country for 10 years.

The motive for the expulsion of Tsiganov and his ally, Andrey Panpurin, is that they constitute a serious threat to national security.

In March 2011, Tsiganov's citizenship was revoked due to false data and facts used to motivate his naturalization.

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Tags: Supreme Administrative Court, VAS, Konstantin Tsiganov, Angel Marin, Georgi Parvanov, INTERPOL, citizenship, Constitutional Court

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