site.btaProsecutor General Asks Parliament to Lift Immunity of Three Volya MPs

Prosecutor General Asks Parliament to Lift Immunity of Three Volya MPs

Sofia, June 23 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov has approached the National Assembly with a request to lift the immunity of Volya MPs Vesselin Mareshki, Krustina Taskova and Plamen Hristov, the prosecution service said in a press release on Friday.

Mareshki is founder and leader of the Volya Party, and Taskova is Deputy Floor Leader of its 12-member parliamentary group.

The three are under investigation for blackmail. Prosecutors have gathered evidence showing that between the autumn of 2012 and the end of 2015 Mareshki allegedly threatened seven pharmacy owners in Dobrich, Vidin, Pleven and Sofia to damage their property and drive their business to bankruptcy. In two of the cases, in Sofia and Vidin, Mareshki was allegedly aided by Hristov and Taskova.

According to the prosecution case, the purpose of the blackmail was to force the pharmacy owners in the five cities to transfer their corporate participating interests to companies owned or controlled by Mareshki or go out of business. In some of the cases, the alleged purpose was to force the pharmacy owners to purchase medicines on unprofitable terms from Mareshki's medicinal products warehouse.