Outgoing Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev has expressed concern at "secret information" that Bulgaria services may have obtained by wiretapping his convesations.

He has accused the authorities responsible for "unfounded wiretapping of high-profile statesmen" of having adopted a "practice of a totalitarian past that has been denied by the Bulgarian society."

Nenchev was indicted on two charges in November on two counts, one being a deal to repair six MiG-29 fighter jet engines in Poland. In a letter to Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor, he reports that court materials he was made familiar with show special surveillance devices were used against him as he was under investigation.

Posing six questions to Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov which, he argues, are "of substantial importance" to the functioning of democracy, he has has warned that classified information may have been intercepted by the surveillance teams.

Arguing the "public institutions systematically ignore national security", he has urged for guarantees that the information obtained through wiretapping will not be accessible to third parties, news website Dnevnik.bg quotes him as saying.

Nenchev has sought confirmation that surveillance equipment was indeed used during the investigation and also to establish the period in which he was subjected to eavesdropping.

He has also asked who processed and stored information he obtained on a daily basis from the military intelligence, the military police and several armed forces and ministerial agencies.

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