site.btaVarna Mayor’s Detention Sparks Protest Outside European Parliament

Bulgarians gathered Wednesday near the European Parliament in Brussels in support of detained Varna mayor Blagomir Kotsev and others under investigation over suspected corruption in Varna Municipality. 

The event was organized via social media and attended by MEPs Nikola Minchev and Hristo Petrov, alongside representatives of the Renew Europe group and the ALDE party.

“We expect and fight for an independent judiciary in Bulgaria so that judicial authorities are not used for repression and do not act brutally,” Minchev said to journalists. “For years we have repeated that an independent court and a reformed anti-corruption commission are essential. What we are seeing reminds me of the specialized judiciary which we abolished three years ago. We concluded it was a ‘club’ because temporary measures always prevailed instead of results. Specialized courts never delivered final, successful criminal convictions. They became known for repression and for the measures taken at detentions,” he said.

“We will try to keep the subject of the rule of law in Bulgaria on the agenda of the European Parliament. Accessing EU budget funds now depends on reforms and EU principles. The rule of law is one such principle, and the lack of an independent judiciary will also affect State funding,” Minchev said.

“If the law prevails, the mayor Kotsev and all others detained should be released. At the very least, the Sofia City Court and Sofia City Prosecution Office are not competent in this regard before examining the merits. If the law exists and is observed, tomorrow they must be released. All actions so far have been taken by an incompetent body, so they cannot lead to a successful indictment. This will be another failure for the Bulgarian prosecution service. These failures end badly for our State in terms of prestige and in terms of rulings from the Strasbourg Court,” Minchev concluded.

Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev and several municipal councillors are being held in custody on charges of involvement in an organized criminal group related to alleged corruption over public procurement contracts. The case is ongoing before the Sofia City Court, with prosecutors seeking their continued detention and the defence disputing both the process and the evidence.