Chief Prosecutor Seeks to Lift the Immunity of Mareshki and 2 Other MPs

Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov filed requests on 23^rd of June seeking to lift the immunity of MPs Vesselin Mareshki, Krastina Taskova and Plamen Hristov from Volya party.

The requests are based on evidence from an investigation by the District Prosecutor’s Office in the coastal city of Varna, which was initiated 12^th of December 2014 for extortion.

In the course of the investigation, evidence has been gathered that during the period from the autumn of 2012 to the end of 2015 in the cities of Varna, Dobrich, Vidin, Pleven and Sofia, Vesselin Mareshki threatened 7 owners of pharmacies with property damage and other unlawful actions with severe consequences for them.

According to the prosecution. Mareshki wanted to force them to transfer shares of their pharmacies to companies owned and controlled by Vesselin Mareshki or to terminate their business activities. In some cases, his aim was to force the owners of the pharmacies to commit to buy medicines from his drug stores under unfavourable conditions.

Evidence shows that in that period, Mareshki threatened the owners of pharmacies that through targeted administrative pressure and targeted inspections, which would be conducted by close associates he had in the Bulgarian Drug Agency (BDA) and through unfair commercial practices, he would cause their commercial companies to go bankrupt and would force them to cease their activities.