site.btaPM Speaks in Parliament about His List of 19 Persons Responsible for Big Corruption and Major Offences
ESD 21:04:31 11-02-2022
VE2101ES.117
117 POLITICS - PRIME MINISTER - PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL
PM Speaks in Parliament about His List of
19 Persons Responsible for Big
Corruption and Major Offences
Sofia, February 11 (BTA) - Prime Minister Kiril Petkov was in Parliament Friday to answer questions about his idea that 20 individuals are responsible for big corruption and serious criminal and economic offences in Bulgaria. His explanations caused an intense back-and-forth between him and the opposition Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF).
Petkov described to the MPs being summoned by the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office (SCPO) as Prime Minister after his remarks in Brussels about the 20 individuals, and handing them publicly available information from media publications about 19 people.
Petkov said his "list of 19 names was delivered to the 20th person", implying that Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev was among the biggest corruptors and offenders.
In Petkov's words "from now on Bulgarians' taxes will not be spent by certain people as if it were their own".
Then, MP Yordan Tsonev (MRF) asked Petkov how he had filtered the names on the list he delivered to the prosecution service and whether business owner and media publisher Ivo Prokopiev was among them.
The Prime Minister said that if somebody has an alert about offences by anybody, including Ivo Prokopiev, he would be glad to receive it. He stressed everybody will be equal before Bulgarian law.
On Wednesday, when he went to the SCPO to be questioned about names he had mentioned during his meeting with Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev on February 4, Petkov told the press that these names had never been heard officially by the SCPO, and according to him, had only been spoken of in corridors and journalistic investigations.
He has made it clear in remarks on a number of occasions that his list includes former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov (after the leaked photos of wads of euro notes and gold bars on his nightstand), former investigator Petyo Petrov, business owner Roumen Gaytanski, and MRF MP Delyan Peevski, who was designated under the US Global Magnitsky Act in 2021 for involvement in major corruption but the Bulgarian prosecution service has not found him responsible for any wrongdoing.
During the Friday hearing, Petkov went on to speak about the procedure the US followed before sanctioning Peevski and five other Bulgarians under the Magnitsky Act. He said: "There is always a chance that the whole US administration has made a mistake, but I have more trust in them than in the [Bulgarian] prosecution service at the moment because it is inefficient and is run in a nontransparent way".
Prosecutors forward PM's list to Interior Ministry
In a related development, the prosecuting magistracy said Friday it has forwarded to the Interior Ministry the media reports provided by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov about 19 persons claimed to have committed serious criminal and economic offences. The list was sent in order to obtain full information about these individuals, as well as about any actions taken by the law enforcement bodies in accordance with their powers.
The prosecution service also said that the journalists who authored the reports will not be summoned regarding the contents of their articles.
Prokopiev sues MRF deputies
In a statement to the media, Capital weekly's publisher Ivo Prokopiev said that he is filing defamation lawsuits against MPs Mustafa Karadayi, Yordan Tsonev, Hamid Hamid, and Stanislav Atanasov, all of them of MRF, concerning media accusations against him in recent weeks and days. Prokopiev urged the four MPs to give up their immunity and prove their accusations in court.
MRF accused him of using communist tactics and said that the legal action was aimed to silence them.
MRF to sue Finance Minister for Peevski audit
In another development, MRF leader Mustafa Karadayi said that they will refer Finance Minister Assen Vassilev to the prosecuting magistracy for the latter having exceeded his powers by ordering an audit of MRF MP Delyan Peevski, given that such an audit has already been completed.
"Two days ago, we warned about threats made by the Finance Minister towards MRF representatives, while today [Friday] we learned from the media that they have materialized," he said, explaining that the case concerns "an audit of already completed audits of Delyan Peevski. Maybe they don't like the results and it's important for the audits to continue endlessly, regardless of the legality," Karadayi commented.
According to him, this is a form of political repression and an attempt at dealing with a political opponent in an arbitrary fashion. "It is precisely these illegal acts by the Minister of Finance that we will refer to the prosecuting magistracy," the MRF leader said.
MP Yordan Tsonev said that Vassilev does not have the powers to order such audits. The Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code permits such audits to be ordered only by the National Revenue Agency's heads of territorial directorates, and only given that new circumstances have emerged concerning completed audits, Tzonev explained. RY,LN/YV/MY
//
VE2101ES.117
117 POLITICS - PRIME MINISTER - PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL
PM Speaks in Parliament about His List of
19 Persons Responsible for Big
Corruption and Major Offences
Sofia, February 11 (BTA) - Prime Minister Kiril Petkov was in Parliament Friday to answer questions about his idea that 20 individuals are responsible for big corruption and serious criminal and economic offences in Bulgaria. His explanations caused an intense back-and-forth between him and the opposition Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF).
Petkov described to the MPs being summoned by the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office (SCPO) as Prime Minister after his remarks in Brussels about the 20 individuals, and handing them publicly available information from media publications about 19 people.
Petkov said his "list of 19 names was delivered to the 20th person", implying that Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev was among the biggest corruptors and offenders.
In Petkov's words "from now on Bulgarians' taxes will not be spent by certain people as if it were their own".
Then, MP Yordan Tsonev (MRF) asked Petkov how he had filtered the names on the list he delivered to the prosecution service and whether business owner and media publisher Ivo Prokopiev was among them.
The Prime Minister said that if somebody has an alert about offences by anybody, including Ivo Prokopiev, he would be glad to receive it. He stressed everybody will be equal before Bulgarian law.
On Wednesday, when he went to the SCPO to be questioned about names he had mentioned during his meeting with Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev on February 4, Petkov told the press that these names had never been heard officially by the SCPO, and according to him, had only been spoken of in corridors and journalistic investigations.
He has made it clear in remarks on a number of occasions that his list includes former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov (after the leaked photos of wads of euro notes and gold bars on his nightstand), former investigator Petyo Petrov, business owner Roumen Gaytanski, and MRF MP Delyan Peevski, who was designated under the US Global Magnitsky Act in 2021 for involvement in major corruption but the Bulgarian prosecution service has not found him responsible for any wrongdoing.
During the Friday hearing, Petkov went on to speak about the procedure the US followed before sanctioning Peevski and five other Bulgarians under the Magnitsky Act. He said: "There is always a chance that the whole US administration has made a mistake, but I have more trust in them than in the [Bulgarian] prosecution service at the moment because it is inefficient and is run in a nontransparent way".
Prosecutors forward PM's list to Interior Ministry
In a related development, the prosecuting magistracy said Friday it has forwarded to the Interior Ministry the media reports provided by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov about 19 persons claimed to have committed serious criminal and economic offences. The list was sent in order to obtain full information about these individuals, as well as about any actions taken by the law enforcement bodies in accordance with their powers.
The prosecution service also said that the journalists who authored the reports will not be summoned regarding the contents of their articles.
Prokopiev sues MRF deputies
In a statement to the media, Capital weekly's publisher Ivo Prokopiev said that he is filing defamation lawsuits against MPs Mustafa Karadayi, Yordan Tsonev, Hamid Hamid, and Stanislav Atanasov, all of them of MRF, concerning media accusations against him in recent weeks and days. Prokopiev urged the four MPs to give up their immunity and prove their accusations in court.
MRF accused him of using communist tactics and said that the legal action was aimed to silence them.
MRF to sue Finance Minister for Peevski audit
In another development, MRF leader Mustafa Karadayi said that they will refer Finance Minister Assen Vassilev to the prosecuting magistracy for the latter having exceeded his powers by ordering an audit of MRF MP Delyan Peevski, given that such an audit has already been completed.
"Two days ago, we warned about threats made by the Finance Minister towards MRF representatives, while today [Friday] we learned from the media that they have materialized," he said, explaining that the case concerns "an audit of already completed audits of Delyan Peevski. Maybe they don't like the results and it's important for the audits to continue endlessly, regardless of the legality," Karadayi commented.
According to him, this is a form of political repression and an attempt at dealing with a political opponent in an arbitrary fashion. "It is precisely these illegal acts by the Minister of Finance that we will refer to the prosecuting magistracy," the MRF leader said.
MP Yordan Tsonev said that Vassilev does not have the powers to order such audits. The Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code permits such audits to be ordered only by the National Revenue Agency's heads of territorial directorates, and only given that new circumstances have emerged concerning completed audits, Tzonev explained. RY,LN/YV/MY
//
news.modal.header
news.modal.text