site.btaCaretaker Interior Minister in Parliament: Hundreds of Bulgarians, Including Politicians, Have Been Wiretapped

July 28 (BTA) - Hundreds of Bulgarian citizens, some of
which involved in politics, have been wiretapped at the request
of the specialized prosecution office and with the permission of
 the specialized court, caretaker Interior Minister Boyko
Rashkov told Parliament on Wednesday. He was given a hearing at
GERB-UDF's proposal on his allegations about unlawful
wiretapping of politicians and members of the public.
   
"You want me, as a minister of interior, to list names for you,
but you have got the wrong person, I am not Tsvetan Tsvetanov,"
he told the MPs and added that the law does not allow such
information to be shared.

Tsvetanov was interior minister in the first government of GERB
leader Boyko Borissov (2009-2013). He was the second-in-command
in GERB and one of  Borissov's closest aides until he left the
party in 2020 after a property purchase scandal and started his
own political project, Republicans for Bulgaria.

The GERB-UDF parliamentary group demanded that Rashkov name -
behind closed doors, if necessary - the politicians and citizens
 who, as he claims, were wiretapped illegally ahead of the
regular parliamentary elections in April 2021. GERB Floor Leader
 Dessislava Atanassova said Rashkov's allegations had been made
as part of the election campaign for the July 11 snap elections,
 noting that the checks into the matter have not established
wiretapping of MP candidates, the President, the Vice President,
 the caretaker Prime Minister or leaders of political forces.
    
Minister Rashkov told Parliament that the Interior Ministry, the
 Chief Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime, the Internal
Security Directorate and the National Police General Directorate
 have functioned as service personnel to the specialized
prosecution service and have made serious violations of the
Protection of Classified Information Act. The names of
individuals to be wiretapped were written on small pieces of
paper that were later destroyed, and the gathered information
was not filed in the way required by law. All requests by the
specialized prosecutors were elaborated in violation of the
Special Surveillance Means (SSMs) Act by the operatives in these
 services themselves, and not by the observing prosecutor,
Rashkov explained. Under the law, a crime against the republic
is the only grounds for the use of SSMs, and that was not the
case here, he argued. 

The Interior Minister cited a file on the surveillance of 19
persons.

Rashkov said that the check he ordered into the use of SSMs
immediately after he took office in May, is nearly finished and
a large part of the facts have already been established. The
Interior Ministry looked into all documents it had access to;
many relevant documents were destroyed after the caretaker
government took office, as proven by camera footage and
information provided by Interior Ministry staff, he said.
  
All materials gathered, including classified ones, will be
handed over to the corresponding ad hoc parliamentary committee,
 Rashkov told the MPs. According to him, this is the only way
for the investigation to get to the bottom of these procedures
under which individuals without a criminal record were subjected
 to wiretapping, surveillance and tracking.
  
RI/DS





/DT/