Former Agriculture Minister Ventsislav Vurbanov faces charges of large-scale crimes committed in office and related to the Agriculture credit fund, but his immunity as a United Democratic Forces (UDF) MP will not be removed for at least a week.
Chief Prosecutor Nikola Filchev demanded on January 30 that Vurbanov be stripped of his immunity. According to Filchev, there was enough evidence showing that Vurbanov committed severe crimes in his capacity as agriculture minister and head of the State Agriculture Fund.
A temporary parliamentary committee decided last Thursday that the evidence was valid and punitive prosecution could be started. The committee found that Vurbanov made serious violations in managing the Agriculture fund, extending credits and completing privatisation deals. Parliament must now vote on whether or not to strip Vurbanov of his immunity.
“I am innocent, I take responsibility for all my actions as an agriculture minister and I do not intend to renounce them,” Vurbanov said at a press conference organised in his defence on Monday.
“I have not violated the law, or the moral norms of my conscience.”
The UDF MP said he had a full array of documents proving the charges by the chief prosecutor were groundless. He said he gave 12 document files to the parliamentary committee, which heard his defence but “did not heed it”, in his words.
Two of the 12 committee members, UDF MPs Yordan Sokolov and Eliana Masseva, voted against the committee decision to subject Vurbanov’s MP immunity to voting. “This is a political decision,” Sokolov said last Friday.
According to him, the head of the State Agriculture Fund cannot be responsible for the decisions of a collective body. Masseva said that no data shows that Vurbanov has taken decisions single-handedly, ignoring the opinion of the fund’s Board of Directors.
Anastasia Mozer, chair of the Bulgarian Agrarian Popular Union – Popular Union, said at the UDF national conference on Saturday that the committee verdict was a political one, of the National Movement Simeon II, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
Chief Prosecutor Nikola Filchev demanded on January 30 that Vurbanov be stripped of his immunity. According to Filchev, there was enough evidence showing that Vurbanov committed severe crimes in his capacity as agriculture minister and head of the State Agriculture Fund.
A temporary parliamentary committee decided last Thursday that the evidence was valid and punitive prosecution could be started. The committee found that Vurbanov made serious violations in managing the Agriculture fund, extending credits and completing privatisation deals. Parliament must now vote on whether or not to strip Vurbanov of his immunity.
“I am innocent, I take responsibility for all my actions as an agriculture minister and I do not intend to renounce them,” Vurbanov said at a press conference organised in his defence on Monday.
“I have not violated the law, or the moral norms of my conscience.”
The UDF MP said he had a full array of documents proving the charges by the chief prosecutor were groundless. He said he gave 12 document files to the parliamentary committee, which heard his defence but “did not heed it”, in his words.
Two of the 12 committee members, UDF MPs Yordan Sokolov and Eliana Masseva, voted against the committee decision to subject Vurbanov’s MP immunity to voting. “This is a political decision,” Sokolov said last Friday.
According to him, the head of the State Agriculture Fund cannot be responsible for the decisions of a collective body. Masseva said that no data shows that Vurbanov has taken decisions single-handedly, ignoring the opinion of the fund’s Board of Directors.
Anastasia Mozer, chair of the Bulgarian Agrarian Popular Union – Popular Union, said at the UDF national conference on Saturday that the committee verdict was a political one, of the National Movement Simeon II, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
