site.btaUPDATED Interior Ministry, Services Active in Uncovering Corruption Schemes but Prosecution Hindering Their Work - PM Radev

At the opening of Wednesday's Council of Ministers meeting, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said that the more actively the Interior Ministry and security services work to uncover corruption schemes, the more the prosecuting magistracy hinders their work. "Our society has long been waiting for justice and retribution for this plunder, but for that to happen, the prosecution service must at least not stand in the way. Yet, it has recently been doing exactly the opposite," Radev argued.

Radev cited the case from earlier this month, when the police arrested employees of the Burgas Water and Sewerage Company. According to him, the case is currently “pending” and has been “all but crushed.”

In early July, two officials from the Burgas Water and Sewerage Company - Director Tsvetan Mirchev and investor control officer Ilcho Boev - were arrested during a specialized operation by Bulgaria’s General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime on charges of intentional mismanagement.

"During the interrogations, interesting admissions were made regarding massive-scale embezzlement - hundreds of millions of leva that had flowed into party coffers and to nationally known figures," Radev went on to say. This is a serious opportunity to begin unraveling the web of large-scale political corruption, he added. According to him, this is precisely why the Interior Ministry quite rightly referred the case to the Sofia City Prosecution Office, because some of the individuals named enjoy immunity.

“And this is where the problems begin, when it becomes clear that there are indeed such individuals. Because after delays caused by consultations at the highest levels, it was decided to send the case back to the Burgas Prosecution Office. But they sent it in such a way that the case took a week to travel from Sofia to Burgas,” the Prime Minister said. He noted that this was followed by recusals by prosecutors.

"Meanwhile, employees of the Burgas Water and Sewerage Company are walking around freely. They are under pressure from these very same nationally known public figures," Radev said further. In his words, these people are already wavering and beginning to recant their initial statements.

"The grounds for recusal are also interesting - links to the suspects. And this raises the question of who these people’s employer is - the State or organized crime," Radev commented. Only people who are either deeply frightened or heavily dependent can afford to undermine the justice system in this way, he believes. “And I, too, do not want to believe that this is the face of the Bulgarian prosecution service - from the highest to the lowest level,” he added.

The Prime Minister noted that this is happening on the eve of the election of a new Supreme Judicial Council. He described this as an election that must demonstrate whether the judiciary is ready to free itself from the dependencies of the past. "That is why we have stated that there will be no compromise on the professional and moral qualities of candidates for leadership positions in the judiciary; that this election will serve society and justice, not party interests," Radev said.

“I want to state clearly and responsibly that, despite resistance from the prosecution service, the Interior Ministry and the security services will exercise their powers even more resolutely to uncover the widespread political corruption that has emptied the state coffers and led to ruin and poverty,” the Prime Minister underscored.