Outgoing Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev paid a visit to the prosecution, in order to get acquainted with changes in the accusation, saying he had rejected the repair of the MiG-29s by a Russian company. After that the minister wished the prosecutors ‘less orders carried out in contradiction to the law and their morality’.

Former Minister of Economy and Energy Traicho Traikov who was also a presidential runner at the last polls said he would sue the prosecution for defamation and stigmatizing. Right before Christmas he had been accused of deliberate mismanagement and a conflict of interests at the sale of state-owned shares of the EVN electricity distribution company. Traikov pleaded that the Privatization Agency, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and the Financial Monitoring Committee were the institutions responsible for the sale. The prosecution announced these days that former financial minister Simeon Djankov would see charges pressed against him for abuse of office. The latter rushed to explain that he had contacted the prosecution himself due to the danger of a national search warrant.

The initial energy minister of the socialist Stanishev cabinet Rumen Ovcharov decided to remind through the week that he was also a defendant, calling on the prosecution to check out why at this very moment the price of the state-owned Kozloduy NPP and Maritsa Iztok 2 electricity are two and three times lower than the market ones. In November last year Ovcharov was accused of mismanagement on the Belene NPP project which had caused damage to the tune of over EUR 190 mln. to the National Electricity Company /NEK/. Again for Belene rightist former Minister of Energy Delyan Dobrev was also accused in November. Charges were pressed earlier through the fall against two ex-directors of NEK, alongside ex-Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov. Outgoing Minister of Healthcare Petar Moskov and his deputy Adam Persenski also faced charges pressed for abuse of office and mismanagement in relation to the so-called barter of vaccines between Bulgaria and Turkey in May last year.

One way or another all these charges are linked to big money and serious interests, while all the defendants plead not guilty, seeing a political push in the prosecution’s actions. The agricultural party of Defense Minister Nenchev blames Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov for Stalinism, repressions and propaganda. The Democrats for Strong Bulgaria say the actions against Traicho Traikov and Simeon Djankov are another interference of the prosecution in a campaign. The socialist say those acts against their former ministers are not only pre-election motivated, but also an attempt to be intimidated the opposition.

In the mean time the court hasn’t reacted. Some say, judging by the past that it won’t react, according to the others no sentences will follow – a few days before Christmas former deputy chair of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms Hristo Biserov was finally found not guilty and all the charges, concerning tax crimes dropped off. After three-year-long absence Biserov will most likely get back to politics.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev