site.btaProsecution Office Probes PM's Allegation that Certain People in Parliament Are Involved in Drug Trafficking

Sofia, November 22 (BTA) - The Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office has opened a check prompted by a statement of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov that there are people in Parliament involved in drug trafficking, the Prosecutor General's Spokesperson Roumyana Arnaoudova said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters on November 12, Borissov said that "people involved in drugs trafficking, buying of votes, moreover of prisoners' votes, are still in Parliament".

The prosecutors launched their probe, acting on alerts from the Borets [Fighter] Civic Movement, submitted on November 14, and the Vuzrazhdane [Revival] Movement (three days later).

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Kornelia Ninova and Socialist MPs have alerted Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov about the Prime Minister words, BSP for Bulgaria Parliamentary Group Secretary Filip Popov told a news briefing at the National Assembly on Wednesday. The alert stated that "the BSP Parliamentary Group finds it inadmissible that MPs involved in drug trafficking and vote buying should be in Parliament". The Socialist MPs asked of the Prosecutor General to take all necessary steps under the law, including questioning Borissov about the place, source and circumstances in which he obtained information about such MPs and about their identity.

Arnaoudova denied that any such alert from the BSP had been received by Wednesday noon. She said that if the Socialists request a check, than their alert will be joined to the other two.

In a related development, GERB MPs Toma Bikov and Manoil Manev presented at a news briefing in Parliament media coverage and information from the prosecution service regarding BSP MPs about whom Borissov spoke in his statement.

Manev read out a July 12, 2017 press release from the prosecution service, according to which BSP MP Manol Genov had been charged with vote buying. Manev said that in statements she made, the BSP leader has supported her MP.