site.btaProsecutor General Regrets TZUM Meeting But is Not Ashamed of It

Prosecutor General Regrets TZUM Meeting But is Not Ashamed of It

Sofia, May 21 (BTA) - Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov said on Saturday that, as a person, he regrets the controversial TZUM meeting which got him into a scandal, but added that he has nothing to be ashamed of or worry about in this case.

The notorious meeting was between Tsatsarov and gas tycoon and newspaper publisher Sasho Donchev. It took place shortly before the March 26 parliamentary elections and was hosted by businessman and politician Georgi Gergov in his office at Sofia's TZUM department store.

In his remarks to journalists on Saturday, Tsatsarov was adamant that during the TZUM meeting no one asked him to do anything and he did not promise anything. He said it was not a secret meeting.

He called for clear rules about the types of meetings which the members of the judicial, executive and legislative branches of government may hold with other people. "If my meeting with Sasho Donchev and Georgi Gergov was reproachable, the same should also apply to [Supreme Cassation Court President] Lozan Panov's meeting in a law firm's office in central Sofia," the Prosecutor General argued.

Tsatsarov said Panov will not be removed from his post. The Prosecutor General sees similarities between Panov's rhetoric and that of former justice minister Hristo Ivanov, who founded the Yes, Bulgaria! party. "To describe the judicial reform implemented so far as 'mimicry' is a clear sign that he who says it is guilty of 'mimicry' himself," Tsatsarov said, referring to what Panov remarked after meeting with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov on Friday.

"Someone who speaks about amending the Constitution must be a person who is pursuing other goals or is just making noise about himself," Tsatsarov added. He believes that it is not necessary to revise the Constitution in order to create a mechanism to investigate "the big three" in the judiciary. It is enough to change some provisions in the Judicial System Act and the Criminal Procedure Code, he said.

Tsatsarov feels that Panov's clash with him is ruinous to the judicial system. "My colleagues do not deserve to bear the consequences of this conflict," the Prosecutor General said. He urged Panov to apologize to all prosecutors for what he wrote about them in a letter to President Rumen Radev.