SEGA Newspaper: Bulgaria sends Brussels a scarce report

The Bulgarian government sent to Brussels a modest and inaccurate report on the results of the fight against organised crime and corruption. Among the listed dozen of "significant results" only one has been specified - "the defeat of a criminal structure in Burgas led by Dimitar Jeliazkov, a.k.a. Mitio Ochite (Mitio the Eyes)".

The expected on 16 July critical report of the European Commission on Bulgaria will take into consideration the Cabinet's report and compare it to the facts gathered by experts in Brussels. This way the Commission will assess Bulgaria's performance as measured by the six monitoring indicators according to the mechanism for cooperation and verification established for the country on the day of its accession to the EU.

The document emphasizes on Bulgaria's success after the interim report of the Commission in February which startled the authorities in Sofia with its harsh tone. The report puts in the first place among the "significant results of investigations during the March - May 2008 period" the established corrupt behavior of a public prosecutor from the Sofia Prosecutor's Office. The magistrate has been charged with crime against justice and has been dismissed as a result. The Sofia Prosecutor's Office, however, claimed that they did not have any information about such dismissal.

The arrest of two officials from the central administration of the Republican Road Infrastructure Fund (Lyubomir Lilov and Ivan Vladimirov) on bribery charges to the amount of BGN 25 000, as well as the initiated in May 2008 preliminary investigation against the former head of the Fund (Vesselin Georgiev), are also ranked among the major breakthroughs.

The perseverance of Brussels over fight against organized crime is addressed by Bulgaria with three examples of drugs gangs broken up in Pleven, Pazardjik and Rousse. This time Bulgarian authorities provide a counter-argument to the systematic accusations for too many contract killings and no arrests thereof: the arrest of the person responsible for the killing of the head of drug gang in Pleven (Nikolay Hristov, a.k.a. Hayo). During May only Bulgarian authorities have seized 93.513 kilograms of heroin at border checkpoints.

The fight against administration crimes pays off with one success: the revealing of a real estate fraud criminal scheme functioning since 2006 in Sofia and the arrest of a clerk (Daniela Malinova) working at the Sofia City Court and an attorney (Stefan K.) involved in the scheme.

Bulgaria again could not give an account of the expected by Brussels detention of big criminal bosses or the passing of sentences or bringing forward of charges on corruption against former or present ministers. Instead, the report says that for the first three months of 2008 six criminal gangs engaged in women and children trafficking and 16 organized groups involved in economic crimes "have been broken up or partially blocked".

The emphasis lies on administrative and legislative measures: the appointment of the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU funds (Meglena Plugchieva); the transfer of the special anti-fraud unit AFCOS from the Ministry of Interior to the Council of Ministers; the introduction of the Conflict of Interests Bill; the closing down of duty-free shops and gas-stations; the upcoming amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and the Law on Special Investigative Techniques. The reorganization in the Ministry of Interior is also noted although the resignation of the former Interior Minister Rumen Petkov is passed over in silence as a positive fact.

In the area of judicial reform the Bulgarian state boasts over the establishment of a new inspectorate with the Supreme Judicial Council, as well as with the organized concourses for selection of judges, public prosecutors and investigators.