The prosecutor’s office should provide data on the pre-trial proceedings against Kalin Stoyanov

© Velko Angelov

In an interrogation published in the media by the former head of internal security at the Ministry of the Interior, Stefcho Bankov, who is the brother of the detained Bankova, he refers to two pre-trial proceedings initiated against an unknown perpetrator, but they concern the Minister of the Interior, Kalin Stoyanov. One is that he self-imposed a secret accommodation, which is a crime and someone should investigate that. The second pre-trial proceeding is about the connection of Kalin Stoyanov with Nikolay Filipov, known as Niki Mitnicharya, with the private customs down in the Burgas region. When such data are leaked, let the prosecutor’s office indicate the facts of these cases, let’s see them for what they are.”

This is what Atanas Atanasov, the MP from “We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria” told BNT today. He asked if it was a coincidence that after the interrogation of Bankov and the appearance of these data, the development against his sister, who was the director of the “Customs” Agency until the detention and on charges of being part of an organized criminal group, followed.

“The affair in customs is a fictional plot. I define it as a multi-functional active event that must fulfill several tasks. One of the important ones is to divert attention from the “Notary” affair, because there are very heavy dependencies there. The “Notary” commission has fallen silent. It remained in the shadow of the customs commission, or as it is called there, and was entrusted to “There is such a people”. There, in practice, everything that is collected goes to the commission and from there it comes to you (journalists, b.a.) , stated Atanasov. He specified that this is a scenario that has been repeated over the years.

20 years ago I had the same story as Kotsev

“More than 20 years ago, three pre-trial proceedings were instituted against me. One of them was that I organized the wiretapping of the former chief prosecutor Nikola Filchev. Six years, repression, detention, arrests. Then three acquittals at three instances. Now it’s the same story with Zhivko Kotsev. The second goal of the organizers is to discredit our coalition before the election, that we are organizers of smuggling,” explained Atanasov.

As an important detail, he noted that it is a matter of “log development”, similar to log cases, which are started at a certain point in time. “According to the chairman of DANS, the development started a year ago. Good, but the persons who were implemented – the former chief secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the head of the Customs Agency, at that moment did not hold these positions. It is interesting against whom this development was started “, emphasized the MP.

The interior minister allowed himself something unacceptable

He noted that the main interrogators in this case are responsible officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and two of them are contenders for the position of Zivko Kotsev. Atanasov refused to give their names. “If there was any implementation of smuggling, your cameras would be there. This is a fabricated story from beginning to end. Let them prove that they are smugglers,” the MP summarized on this topic.

According to him, Kalin Stoyanov allowed himself to do something unacceptable by refusing to provide information about the agent past of Martin Bojanov – the Notary before the competent parliamentary committee. “His explanations are for the naive. There is a legal order for the declassification of information in the highest body of state power,” said Atanasov. He noted that it was important to see who was providing an umbrella over the Notary.

“Another question arises: The former director of the GDBOP, who is now a chief in the SDVR, Lyubomir Yanev, as far as I know, is now investigating the murder of Bojanov, was he in any kind of matchmaking relationship with the Notary?” Atanasov asked. According to him, these questions should find an answer, if not in this one, in the next parliament. “Because the umbrella over this criminal group is between certain circles in the services and the prosecutor’s office,” said the deputy.

Vote buying is the most widespread organized crime

“Parliamentary elections are coming up and let the Bulgarian citizens think about it and decide – whether they want to return to the status quo of the 15-year rule of Boyko Borisov or whether they want to continue the reforms,” ​​said the MP.

In response to a question, he pointed out that the remedy against electoral manipulation is high voter turnout. Atanasov emphasized another type of manipulation coming from analysts and political scientists, who explained that nothing depends on these elections, because there will be subsequent ones.

In response to a question, the MP emphasized that it is not about settling scores with Kalin Stoyanov, but about maintaining the established position of “We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria”. He recalled how in August last year, the Minister of Internal Affairs replaced 18 directors of regional directorates of the Ministry of the Interior, something unprecedented until that moment. “At one point, when we started checking, it turned out that the newly appointed, in one way or another, were connected to the GERB-DPS coalition, and this resulted in the local elections – over 400,000 invalid ballots,” noted Atanasov.

The MP emphasized that vote buying is the most massive organized crime committed in Bulgaria and added that the Minister of the Interior is responsible for building the system to counteract it. According to Atanasov, in some places people know who the vote-buyers are, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs turns a blind eye to this information. He added that DANS should also work against the buying and selling of votes, which were a threat to national security.

We go to the elections to fight for power

“The main task of the puppet government should not be to change bosses in various units in the state, every day I deal with some personnel purges, but to guarantee the fairness of the elections,” Atanasov stressed.

Asked if he can say that “We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria” will never work with GERB again, he said: There is a golden rule in politics that says: “Never say never”. Political parties go to the elections to fight for power, not to fight to be in opposition”.