Nikola Filchev, Bulgaria's former prosecutor-general who is now serving as ambassador to Kazakhstan, asked to be relieved of his duties starting September, the Foreign Ministry told Sofia Echo on June 10.

Filchev was appointed as ambassador to Almaty in February 2006, after his seven-year term as prosecutor-general expired. A controversial figure during and after his term in office, his diplomatic nomination, supported by both Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and President Georgi Purvanov, was interpreted at the time by the rightist opposition as a way to keep him out of the judiciary's reach.

The opposition accused him of concealing evidence of corruption implicating former prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg in the controversy involving Saxe-Coburg’s Italian cousin, Victor Emmanuel.

Allegedly, Saxe-Coburg had offered Italian crown heir Prince Victor Emmanuel and businessman Pierpaolo Cerani participation in Bulgarian projects in exchange for electoral campaign financing.

Calls for Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin to recall Filchev were rebuffed.

Earlier this year, witnesses in the murder case of Yambol attorney Nadezhda Georgieva accused Filchev under oath of murdering Georgieva.