site.btaBoyko Borissov Receives Summons to Appear for Questioning on Thursday

Sofia, July 13 (BTA) - Former prime minister and GERB leader
Boyko Borissov received a summons on Tuesday to appear for
questioning at the National Police General Directorate on
Thursday to ''provide a statement'', he himself told reporters
on Tuesday. The GERB leader suggested that this is connected to
a 2010 case involving a former agriculture minister, mentioned
previously by caretaker Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov, but
Borissov denied knowing anything about the case.

In late May, caretaker Interior Minister and Deputy Prime
Minister Boyko Rashkov told Evrocom television about a testimony
 that Borissov had saved a minister from his first cabinet from
going to prison by putting pressure on a witness in a case.
According to an years-old alert, Borissov threatened the
witness, a businessman, that his family "would not know if they
were eating his own meat".

In Rashkov's words, the witness explained that after the threat
from Borissov, he was forced to appear before a judge again to
say that he did not support the testimony he had given before.
There was evidence in the case of crimes committed by one of
Borissov's ministers.

The charges were brought immediately after Borissov's first
government fell from power. The case sank into oblivion and the
state prosecution stopped informing the public about it, and a
year and a half later Borissov returned to power. In the end,
"the case was crushed by the investigation and the prosecution,"
 the caretaker Interior Minister said. The case was archived at
the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, and Rashkov suggested that
following his statement, the state prosecution should act on its
 own initiative.

After a media investigation, it became clear that the case that
Rashkov was talking about is an indictment filed in 2013 against
 the former agriculture minister from Borissov's first cabinet,
Miroslav Naydenov, for promising a bribe of 200,000 leva to the
then head of the State Fund Agriculture, Svetoslav Simeonov.
According to the prosecuting magistracy, the aim was for
Simeonov to sign payment orders for illegal VAT refunds to the
companies V.D.V. 007 EOOD and Melcom OOD. This happened in 2010,
 three years before the indictment itself, and was related to
the programme for  distribution of food for the socially
disadvantaged.

The alert came from Marin Dimitrov, former head of the Executive
 Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, who said that he had
heard  Simeonov complain about being threatened by Borissov.
   
In mid-June 2021, after reports of a launched probe by Rashkov
and interviews with former magistrates, Borissov was adamant
that he is the intended target of the investigation and that he
has nothing to do with the accusations. He said that the point
is to bring him in for questioning right before the elections.
 
Ten days ago, Rashkov said that the investigation of this case
by the Ministry of Interior is in full swing.

***

Meanwhile, GERB demanded the resignation of the Central Election
 Commission over what the party perceives as election
irregularities, mostly abroad. NV/DT