When European enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn spoke at a May 17 news conference in Sofia about Bulgarias readiness to join the European Union on January 1 2007, he said: We want to see zero tolerance of high-level corruption in the form of investigations and court proceedings.
No doubt that Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev heard Rehns message clearly, as on June 12 he presented a report of investigations deliberately blocked during the term of office of his predecessor Nikola Filchev, along with the names of seven prosecutors who had exercised pressure to stall or stop anti-crime cases.
Conclusions drawn by the report include cases having been delayed beyond all reasonable limits, unlawful intervention in the work of subordinate prosecutors by usurping their powers, and imposing actions and decisions made in bad faith.
Among the senior prosecution officials mentioned in the report are Mityo Markov, deputy prosecutor-general; Tseko Yordanov, a Supreme Judicial Council member; the prosecutors Angel Iliev and Spartak Dochev; and former Sofia city prosecutor Boiko Naidenov, who Velchev recently appointed as SCP spokesperson.
Naidenov told Bulgarian-language media that the first step after the release of the report for Velchev was to hold talks face-to-face with the implicated prosecutors and then to announce administrative measures against them.
Speaking on Bulgarian National Radio on June 13, Velchev said that he would not hesitate to recommend the severest administrative sanctions against the prosecutors. Another strong message from Velchev was that he would not mind if any of the alleged prosecutors decided to resign.
Former Sofia mayor and current MP Stefan Sofianski certainly did not mind a June 14 ruling by Sofia City Court, acquitting Sofianski on a charge of malfeasance in office over a deal with the Central Hali, a large indoor market in the centre of Sofia. Sofianski was charged with devaluating 400 times the market price of the Halite when forming a joint venture between Sofia municipality and Israeli company Ashtrom. The court found that Sofianski had implemented a collective decision adopted by the municipal council and could not be sentenced for fulfilling his official duties.
The municipal decision and all parameters of the deal themselves were approved at a session when Sofianski was not present, the judges said.
