site.btaCourt Approached for Reopening of Classified Documents Loss Case against Ex-PM Stanishev

Court Approached for Reopening of Classified Documents Loss Case against Ex-PM Stanishev

Sofia, May 26 (BTA) - The Sofia City Prosecution Office said on
Tuesday that it approached the Sofia City Court on Monday with a
motion for a resumption of the suspended administrative penalty
proceedings against Sergei Stanishev.

The motion was based on a European Parliament decision of March
11, 2015 which waived Stanishev's immunity as Member of the
European Parliament. The decision was adopted after on November
24, 2014 Bulgaria's Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov submitted
a request to the European Parliament for authorization to
continue the criminal proceedings against Stanishev. In its
reasons, the European Parliament said it did not find evidence
of "a sufficiently serious and precise suspicion that the case
has been brought with the intention of causing political damage
to the Member concerned."

In November 2014, Stanishev sent a letter to European Parliament
President Martin Schulz in connection with the Prosecutor
General's request. "For more than four years, I have been
investigated for 'lost' documents for purely political reasons.
For me it is important to receive quick access to justice and to
clear my name. I request your cooperation for the quick launch
of the procedures [on immunity] set in Rule 9 of the European
Parliament's Rules of Procedure. I myself will cooperate with
everything necessary with both the services of the European
Parliament and the Bulgarian institutions."

Pretrial proceedings against Stanishev were launched on May 27,
2010, when he was charged with misplacing seven classified
documents between November 4, 2005 and September 10, 2009 in his
then capacity as Bulgaria's prime minister. The seven reports:
one of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), two of the
Interior Ministry, one of the Defence Ministry and one of NATO,
were handed to Stanishev for safekeeping by the SANS. According
to the prosecution case, the evidence taken indicated that
Stanishev was negligent and careless about complying with the
classified information handling rules. The documents were never
recovered. The penal sanction that the prosecution seeks is a
fine ranging from 500 to 5,000 leva because the accused has no
previous convictions and his acts did not inflict property
damage on the State.