site.btaUPDATED Former PM Petkov Waives Immunity to Be Investigated for Dual Citizenship

Former prime minister Kiril Petkov will waive his parliamentary immunity to be investigated for his citizenship declaration. Petkov wrote in a Facebook post that he will wait for Parliament to set up an immunity committee where he would present "all facts and evidence" so that it becomes "clear to all how the Bulgarian prosecution service is used for political pressure". "On the day BEFORE the committee makes its decision [whether or not to lift his immunity] I will give it up because I have nothing to fear," he wrote.

The post came shortly after Sofia Regional Prosecution Office said it had made a proposal to the Prosecutor General to ask Parliament to lift the immunity of former prime minister and Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria MP Kiril Petkov.

The proposal was drawn up in connection with pre-trial proceedings regarding a declaration of citizenship possibly containing false information, which was submitted under Article 110 of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Article 110 states that eligible for election to the Council of Ministers shall be any Bulgarian citizen qualified to be elected to the National Assembly.

According to the prosecution office’s official position based on the evidence gathered during the investigation, it can be concluded that the declaration submitted by Kiril Petkov "concealed the truth" – that he had Bulgarian and Canadian citizenship, and "confirmed the untruth that this person was eligible to be elected as a member of Parliament", to use the prosecutors' words.

On December 16, 2021, Sofia Regional Prosecutor Nevena Zartova told journalists that the Sofia Regional Prosecution Office has refused to initiate pre-trial proceedings against Kiril Petkov in relation to his dual citizenship case.

The same prosecution office told BTA on Tuesday that they have renewed the investigation against Petkov on instructions from a higher-instance prosecution office.

Petkov also said in his Tuesday Facebook post: "To the prosecutors and the security services: don't you understand that we are determined to carry through a comprehensive reform in the judicial system and the captured special services and that you can't scare and stop us?" He also said that he was proud to have given up his Canadian citizenship "to be able to become a part of the change that is coming and that, after 30 years of lack of justice, will ultimately remove institutionally all unaccountable and dependent officers of the judicial and security systems".