Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev confirmed his full support to Petko Sertov, head of the State Agency for National  Security (SANS), on October 3 2008, Bulgarian-language agency Focus said.

Stanishev was answering a question raised by Atanas Atanassov, an MP from the right-wing opposition, on the subject of the Government's efforts in fighting top level corruption.

Sertov is at the centre of a scandal about SANS having journalists under surveillance, something which he has denied the agency did on purpose. The row broke after a group of MPs visited SANS headquarters on September 3 2008 and on their way out told reporters that about 50 journalists were part of SANS' investigation called “Gallery”.

On September 2, Sertov met with the media and assured them that the journalists' names appeared in the course of an internal investigation into leaks of classified information to the media and SANS has never investigated journalists on purpose. He said he would resign if it was proved to be otherwise.

The public has been flooded with information and disinformation about SANS' work in the past weeks, Stanishev told Parliament and added that “the campaign against SANS started when the agency started working”.

He gave the examples of the two recent arrest of Ivan Lekov, deputy head of the State Agency for Youth and Sport, and Marious Tsakov, deputy regional governor of Sofia, both of whom were arrested by SANS. Lekov was charged in abuse of power, while Tsakov was charged with taking a bribe.

Since April 1 2008, a total of 11 pre-trial investigation have been launched against public officials, Stanishev said and noted that there was more to be done in the light of the high public expectations towards SANS.

The agency was created on Janaury 1 2008 on Stanishev's request, who remains the only public official who can give orders to Sertov. The law on SANS envisages for Parliament to have the control over its work, but MPs are still debating on forming the committee to do that. Besides Stanishev, SANS should report to the President and to the Speaker of Parliament.