advertisement
Sat, May 26 2012
Former Bulgarian defence minister, judge arrested over alleged bribe
Former defence minister Nikolai Tsonev
Photo: Anelia Nikolova
Former Bulgarian defence minister Nikolai Tsonev, Sofia City Court judge Petar Santirov and the former chief secretary of the Finance Ministry, Tencho Popov, were arrested on April 1 2010, website mediapool.bg reported.
The arrests were confirmed by the Interior Ministry, which said that it would hold a news conference on the joint operation, carried out by several law enforcement agencies, later in the day.
According to mediapool.bg, which quoted "unofficial information", Santirov had allegedly asked for a bribe to "fix" a lawsuit against Tsonev, who has been indicted on charges of malfeasance while in office.
Popov was arrested, according to mediapool.bg, with 25 000 leva and 25 000 euro in cash which, allegedly, were the bribe money for Santirov.
"Today is Maundy Thursday, just before Good Friday and a beautiful day to crucify three," deputy Sofia city prosecutor Roman Vassilev was quoted as saying, referring to the three people arrested.
Dnevnik daily, citing unnamed sources, said that Santirov allegedly was only a middleman in the alleged attempted bribe.
Prosecutors indicted Tsonev on charges of abusing his position and authorising a deal that cost the state Budget eight million leva. The indictment said that the former minister agreed to the purchase of a metal construction production line even though the ministry's budget made no provision for the purchase in the first place.
The request for the purchase came from General Zlatan Stoykov, the former chief of staff of the Bulgarian army.
Tsonev, a member of former prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg's party, is one of three former ministers in the previous tripartite coalition government to be have been indicted. Former socialist labour minister Emilia Maslarova and former agriculture minister Valeri Tsvetanov, from the predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms, are the other two ministers facing charges.
The arrests were confirmed by the Interior Ministry, which said that it would hold a news conference on the joint operation, carried out by several law enforcement agencies, later in the day.
According to mediapool.bg, which quoted "unofficial information", Santirov had allegedly asked for a bribe to "fix" a lawsuit against Tsonev, who has been indicted on charges of malfeasance while in office.
Popov was arrested, according to mediapool.bg, with 25 000 leva and 25 000 euro in cash which, allegedly, were the bribe money for Santirov.
"Today is Maundy Thursday, just before Good Friday and a beautiful day to crucify three," deputy Sofia city prosecutor Roman Vassilev was quoted as saying, referring to the three people arrested.
Dnevnik daily, citing unnamed sources, said that Santirov allegedly was only a middleman in the alleged attempted bribe.
Prosecutors indicted Tsonev on charges of abusing his position and authorising a deal that cost the state Budget eight million leva. The indictment said that the former minister agreed to the purchase of a metal construction production line even though the ministry's budget made no provision for the purchase in the first place.
The request for the purchase came from General Zlatan Stoykov, the former chief of staff of the Bulgarian army.
Tsonev, a member of former prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg's party, is one of three former ministers in the previous tripartite coalition government to be have been indicted. Former socialist labour minister Emilia Maslarova and former agriculture minister Valeri Tsvetanov, from the predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms, are the other two ministers facing charges.
-
Print
-
Send via email
- Translate to
-
Share:
Comments
To post comments, please, Login or Register.
Please read the The Sofia Echo forum comments policy.
Bulgarian senior prosecutor Roman Vassilev faces disciplinary action
The Supreme Judicial Council has three months to decide the fate of Vassilev, with the worst sanction being dismissal.
Prosecutor-General: One misstatement not enough to put a prosecutor's career in jeopardy
Bulgarian Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev comments on the controversy surrounding his deputy Roman Vassilev's statements during the arrest of former defence minister.
Sofia city prosecutor Roman Vassilev faces severe sanctions following comments on Tsonev
The Ethics Committee of the Supreme Judicial Council has proposed that the deputy Sofia city prosecutor Roman Vassilev is sanctioned and possibly relieved of duty following his remarks
Interior Ministry should be more tolerant when arresting people, Tsvetanov says
Interior Ministry would not alter its modus operandi out of regard for the interests of society Tsvetan Tsvetanov says
Bulgarian former defence minister indicted
Nikolai Tsonev accused of purchasing millions of leva worth of equipment for which no funds were provided in the 2009 budget.
Bulgarian former social minister indicted for allegedly embezzling 11M leva
Prosecutors press charges against Socialist Emilia Maslarova and four others in relation to renovation works.
Bulgarian prosecutors press charges against two opposition MPs
Gyunai Sefer and Mithat Tabakov, from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, are charged with document fraud
More in this category
Saab awarded $2.4M military training equipment contract in Bulgaria
The funding is provided under the foreign military sales programme of the US army's Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.
Two Brits fined for hooliganism in Bulgaria’s Veliko Turnovo
The UK nationals were arrested after throwing beer bottles at people after being refused entry to a restaurant that had closed for the night.
Tourism: Bulgaria to spend 300M leva on restoring castles, ancient sites
Restoration and development projects include Madara Horseman, Arbanassi fortress, Magura cave.
Sovereign Order of Malta assists hospital in Bulgaria’s Iskrets
Simeon Saxe-Coburg and his spouse Margarita opened a new heating and insulation system at the Tsar Ferdinand Hospital for Pulmonary Diseases in Iskrets, a project implemented thanks to the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Sofia and the Nando Peretti Foundation.
Bulgarian Parliament passes confiscation act
According to the law's provisions, the commission will have the power to investigate individuals without prior notification and would not require a criminal conviction in order to launch an investigation.
© 2000-2012, Sofia Echo Media Ltd.
Web Design by RIZN
Sofia Echo Media is part of the Economedia Group.
The news and information content on this website is provided by our editorial team and is copyrighted.
Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only
with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site.
Comments posted by the website's visitors are independent of the editorial materials and do not represent the views of sofiaecho.com.
Sofia Echo Media cannot be held responsible for the statements contained in visitor comments.
The percentаge change in the shares' prices are based on the price of the last transaction of the current session compared to the
price of the last transaction of the previous session. Bulgarian Stock Exchange data is not real-time, but updated every 15 minutes,
and should not be used as a basis for decisions about buying or selling stock options.
- Economedia Group portfolio:
- In Bulgarian:
-
Business:
Капитал,
Кариери,
Пазари,
Ho Re Mag,
Регал,
Градът.bg,
Одит,
Foton.bg,
Online shop
- News: Дневник, Европа, Foreign Policy - България
- IT: IDG.BG, Computerworld, PC World, CIO, Networkworld
- Entertainment: Бакхус
-
In English:
The Sofia Echo
Absolute garbage! They took him with a gun to his head simply because he was political fodder. You want dirty politicians, THIS is certainly not the one. I've heard nothing but good things about this guy. We're on the brink of economic collapse. GERB...yeah, great job.
Maybe an idea to use big part of EU money for building few more jails, like that there will be enough room for corrupt politicians and solve the unemployment problem for a while.
Good job !
Corruption was the "business" for most of these ministers ...
Well done GERB !!
Clean up this country .
At the current rate there will be no ex or current ministers left, they'll all be in Jail. You can tell that Bulgaria is on the brink of going to the EU for bail out money, it is stepping up the case on corruption. Then again, if the EU don't give any bail out money later this year, I think past corruption will be the least of Bulgaria's worries.