site.btaProsecution Office to Hire International Experts for Gorni Lom Explosion Probe

ESD 12:30:00 17-10-2014
SN1229ES.105
105 HOME AFFAIRS-JUSTICE-EXPLOSION - PROBE - PROSECUTOR GENERAL

Prosecution Office to Hire
International Experts for Gorni
Lom Explosion Probe


Sofia, October 17 (BTA) - The Prosecution Office will hire
international experts to aid it in a probe of a deadly explosion
in an ammunition disposal plant in the northwestern village of
Gorni Lom on October 1, Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov told
the press here Friday.

The blast killed all 15 persons who were at the facility at the
time, including 12 workers and three members of the management,
among them the owner's son. The owner suggested that the
explosion might have been the result of a sabotage but
investigators believe it was most likely a case of human error.

Most of the Bulgarian experts who could participate in the
investigation are variously connected with the factory owner,
Valeri Mitkov, who used to head a department in a higher school
for explosive works and had trained them or worked with them,
Tsatsarov explained.

The Gorni Lom plant was working on contracts for dismantling
landmines.

Interior Minister Yordan Bakalov has argued that the factory
should not have been allowed to operate in the first place,
because the landmines which were to be decommissioned there were
too many and too dangerous. According to Bakalov, the Defence
Ministry had advised against licensing the plant.

Tsatsarov said that probe has already ruled out a terrorist act
or subversive action. "It was more like criminal negligence," he
added.

"When the capacity for mine disposal is lower than the pace at
which more mines are coming to the plant, you sabbotage your own
safety and that of the people working there," Tsatsarov
commented.

The Prosecutor General also said that as soon as the new
Parliament starts work, he would move for lifting the MP
immunity of Ataka leader Volen Siderov and GERB deputy leader
and former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, to allow the
progress of lawsuits against them.

Tsvetanov is being sued for failing to exercise proper control
on police surveillance and Siderov for assaulting a police
officer during a row at Varna Airport.

Both gave up their immunity while they were sitting in the
previous Parliament but their election to the new legislature
after the October 5 elections gave them fresh immunity.

The Prosecutor General said that he would also move for
stripping Sergei Stanishev of the immunity he has a member of
the European Parliament, to ensure the progress of a lawsuit in
which he is charged with mishandling seven classified reports
from the security authorities in the period from 2005 to 2009
when he was Prime Minister of Bulgaria. Tsatsarov expects this
procedure to be more complex than the one for the Bulgarian MPs.
LY/LN/


/СН/