Former Environment Minister Borislav Sandov on the Charges in the "Petrohan" Case: I'm Not Worried

Former Minister of Environment and Water, Borislav Sandov, told the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) in September 18 that he had not received any notification from the Prosecutor’s office that he had been charged:

“I have not been served with anything, but I assume this concerns the signing of this framework agreement with the National Agency for Control of Protected Areas, which in no way grants the organisation any rights or obligations, nor does it assign functions that fall within the powers of the state, although such a thing is permissible by law. That is not the case with this organisation, however. Nor does it result in any benefits, but that is precisely what I am reading in the Prosecutor's Office's press release as being the basis of the charges against me, which, of course, does not concern me. The only thing I am concerned about is that yet another election campaign will be conducted with the political involvement of the Prosecutor's Office.”

• Former Environment Minister Borislav Sandov Charged in the “Petrohan” Case

Sandov also commented on the Prosecutor’s Office’s claim that the agreement with the National Agency for Control of Protected Areas had secured a benefit in the form of access to land around 'Todorini Kukli' in the Stara Planina (Balkan) Mountains:

“That is categorically untrue. First, the ministry does not own any land there. Second, there is no way that this framework agreement, which simply sets out possibilities for cooperation, could explicitly grant any kind of access – whether explicit or individual – to these people or to this organisation to any land. So this is absolutely untrue and cannot be proven.”

In a post on Facebook, Sandov wrote that the Prosecutor’s Office was charging a former Minister of Environment and Water over a framework agreement similar to the one shown below.

“But because my name is not mentioned in the press release, and because I have already given a statement and presented the document, which categorically does not correspond to what the Prosecutor’s Office has described, it may be a different minister they are referring to. The Prosecutor’s Office has not served me with any document charging me as a defendant.”