Minister of Interior, Ivan Demerdzhiev: I Have No Confidence in the Prosecutor's Office

"I have no confidence in the Prosecutor's office," Minister of Interior, Ivan Demerdzhiev told reporters in Parliament on July 31.

Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of Interior: "No, I do not have confidence that the Prosecutor's Office has started to operate differently, and I will explain why. The double standard that we are witnessing worries me. I can see that the Prosecutor's Office is capable of working very effectively on many cases, and I thank it for that. But this double standard is completely unacceptable. It is high time that the Prosecutor's Office also began taking action in cases involving members of the judiciary. It is high time it moved forward with the pending proceedings against magistrates, instead of allowing the perception of untouchability that they continue to enjoy to persist. When that changes, when they realise they are not untouchable, when they understand that they owe society justice and accountability for their actions, then we will see genuine change."

Commenting on the flights taken by MRF Leader Delyan Peevski, Demerdzhiev said:

Minister of Interior: MRF Leader Delyan Peevski Took 227 Flights from Sofia Over Eight Years

Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of Interior: "There is evidence that numerous individuals paid substantial sums for these flights. We want to establish on what basis those payments were made. We need to determine whether they constituted some form of gifts that should have been declared in the relevant asset declaration, or whether they were paid from his personal funds, which should likewise have been declared. We are talking about very significant sums of money, paid by a wide range of people. We are clarifying the reasons for these payments and the circumstances in which they were made. The paradox is that many different people paid these sums for many different reasons. The fact that we are finding it more difficult to investigate is because, wherever we request information, we have to wait for weeks before receiving it. And I am not entirely convinced that we are receiving that information in full."

Asked about the 'Petrohan' case, the Minister commented:

Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of Interior: "Our aim is to present the full truth about the Petrohan case by the end of August. We are currently holding meetings with representatives of the Prosecutor's Office and the State Agency for National Security (SANS) in order to consolidate the information, piece together the complete picture and present it."

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