BULGARIA’S PARLIAMENT ESTABLISHES AD HOC COMMITTEE TO DECIDE ON THE IMMUNITY OF MPS SIDEROV AND CHUKOLOV

Bulgaria’s Parliament established an ad hoc inquiry committee to deal with the requests by Bulgaria’s Prosecutor General for permission of initiating penal proceedings against two MPs from the nationalist Ataka party, Volen Siderov, the leader of Ataka and Desislav Chukolov.

136 MPs voted in favour of establishing the committee, while 11 (from Ataka party) voted against.

The committee is headed by Deputy Chair of Parliament, Dimitar Glavchev. It consists of 17 MPs, two from each parliamentary group and one MP who is not a member of any parliamentary group.

The task of the committee is to examine whether there was enough data revealing perpetration of crimes of general nature.

Bulgaria’s Prosecutor General, Sotir Tsatsarov, requested from the National Assembly on 12th of October, to remove the immunity from prosecution of the leader of nationalist party “Ataka”,Volen Siderov and Desislav Chukolov.

One of the requests, submitted on 12th of October is based on preliminary proceedings undertaken by Sofia Prosecutor’s Office on a charge of hooliganism after Volen Siderov and MP Desislav Chukulov, on 10th of October, got involved in a late-night confrontation with shop assistants and the owner of a non-stop alcohol and tobacco shop in the centre of the capital city Sofia.

On 26th of October, Prosecutor General requested the Parliament to remove the immunity of Siderov and Chukolov and sought permission for the detention and prosecution of the two MPs on charges of hooliganism. The request was related to the incidents on 23rd and 25th of October, in which Siderov, accompanied by Ataka MPs and supporters, entered the building of the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts and confronted students.