site.btaUPDATED In Case against Ex-PM Petkov, Court Denies Prosecutor's Motion on Kovesi Statement about Borissov's Arrest

The Sofia City Court (SCC) Thursday held a hearing in a case against former prime minister Kiril Petkov, who is charged with committing official malfeasance by ordering senior police officials to take actions at variance with the law.

The SCC denied a motion by prosecutor Angel Kanev for an expert examination of a video of a hearing of European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi at the European Parliament (EP) so as to translate and establish the content of what she said. In Kanev's words, Kovesi made this statement answering a question from a Bulgarian MEP.

On Wednesday, speaking at a joint meeting of the EP Committees on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and on Budgetary Control, Kovesi said that the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) had no connection with the detention of former Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov four years ago and specified that at that time the Office had not been conducting an investigation.

The SCC held that the motion was unfounded and merited to be set aside because the clarification of these circumstances would not contribute to proving the subject-matter of the case. Petkov's defence lawyer Ina Lulcheva also pointed out that the motion is groundless and cannot help establish the truth. She observed that there is no perjury charge in the case at hand.

Kanev told the media later on that he will request a transcript of Kovesi's hearing and will move for its insertion into the case records. 

In 2022, the Interior Ministry said that the operation in which former prime minister and GERB leader Boyko Borissov, former finance minister Vladislav Goranov and GERB PR advisor Sevdelina Arnaudova were arrested on March 17 was part of an extortion investigation prompted by EPPO probes.

The two witnesses, who were questioned at the SSC on Thursday (investigating police officers Vanya Georgieva and Bozhidar Savov who, at the time of the arrests were chief and deputy chief, respectively, of the National Police General Directorate (NPGD) Investigation Department), confirmed that during a meeting at the Council of Ministers with then interior minister Boyko Rashkov, finance minister Assen Vassilev, and the NPGD Director and Deputy Director, at which the initiation of pre-trial proceedings in connection with Borissov, Goranov and Arnaudova was discussed, Petkov said he had discussed the case with Kovesi.

Savov said that the case file, in connection with which the pre-trial proceedings had to be initiated, concerned informtion about extortion of Vasil Bojkov, and Borissov and Goranov were mentioned in this context.

Former gambling mogul Bojkov has gone on record claiming that Borissov and Goranov had extorted him for bribes totalling over BGN 60 million, which Bojkov allegedly delivered in EUR 1 million installments in cash whenever he visited the Finance Ministry.

According to the indictment, Petkov directed the NPGD Director and subordinate police authorities to detain for 24 hours, under the Ministry of Interior Act, Borissov, Goranov and Arnaudova "for the purpose of inflicting on the three damage consisting in impairing their image and tarnishing their good name and, thereby, the State incurred significant harmful consequences in terms of a tarnished prestige of the executive branch of government."

In April 2022, the Sofia Regional Court (SRC) ruled that the authorities had failed to collect "a single good piece of evidence of the accused parties' complicity in the alleged crime." In August 2022, the Sofia Administrative Court confirmed the SRC's judgment according to which Borissov, Goranov, and Arnaudova had been arrested unlawfully.

In comments shortly before the court hearing, the former PM said that "the prosecution service in Bulgaria is used extrajudicially as a bludgeon". As he put it, "there are two types of Bulgarians: us who fight the prosecution in the courtroom because we are free and are not afraid, and the rest, who have 'cases on hold' and are the most unfree people in Bulgaria".

Prosecutor Kanev said later on that at the next hearing of the case, scheduled for June 3, he will ask the court to admit a questioning of Borissov and Rashkov.