site.btaFormer Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Heard on "Notary" Case

Former prosecutor general Ivan Geshev was heard Tuesday by the ad hoc committee probing the facts and circumstances related to the activities of the crime group around Martin "The Notary" Bozhanov, who was killed in late January.

Prior to the hearing, he said he did not personally know Bozhanov. "The only reason I am here today is that I respect the State institutions, even though all that is left of the institution of the National Assembly is the building," he added. Geshev said that while he was deputy prosecutor general at the Specialized Prosecution Office in 2018, there was a case about a fraud group that concerned Bozhanov.

The former prosecutor general also said he had received unofficial information from police officers about a smuggling ring. When he was prosecutor general, he was told that this ring was protected by the caretaker government, in which Boyko Rashkov was interior minister, and then by Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria. Geshev believes that the ring was a means to take control over the Customs Agency and to allow for a new Interior Ministry Secretary General to be appointed. "The [smuggling] rings are run by the security services and these services work for the politicians," he pointed out.

During the hearing, described Bozhanov as a "fraudster" who might have held minor influence over the judiciary at a very low level in some district prosecution offices. "As you can see, there is an officer from the Precinct Police Department No. 3 who protected him," Geshev said. 

Geshev asked why the Interior Ministry hides the fact that Bozhanov was probably its secret informer. "What State secret is there about a dead man having worked for the Interior Ministry," he added, describing Bozhanov as a "petty crook". Тhere are much larger influence groups, he said.

The committee was to hear acting prosecutor general Borislav Sarafov, former prosecutor general Sotir Tsatsarov, lawyers Velimir Atanasov, Emil Piskov and Kalin Chankov and BOEC Civil Association leader Georgi Georgiev. At the beginning of the meeting the committee chair, Nikola Minchev, said that the latter had declined their invitations.

Martin Bozhanov was shot dead in a gated complex in a Sofia suburb on the evening of January 31. According to media reports, he was a large-scale fixer of people's problems with the judiciary. He has been implicated in building a network of connections with prosecutors and judges whom he allegedly bribed, threatened, blackmailed or otherwise pressured to treat his "clients" favourably. In early February, Parliament set up an ad hoc committee to probe the facts and circumstances surrounding the activity of Bozhanov and his group.