site.btaProsecutor General Geshev: Recently Publicized Recordings Likely Featuring President Are Part of Investigation against Armed Forces Contractor

Sofia, February 9 (BTA) - In an interview to the Bulgarian
National Radio on Sunday Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev said
that the wiretaps which the prosecuting magistracy released on
January 29 implicating President Rumen Radev in criminal
activity are part of an investigation against a contractor of
the Armed Forces in the modernization of the army. The recorded
conversations made the prosecuting magistracy petition the
Constitutional Court for an interpretation of the constitutional
 provision on the immunity enjoyed by the President and the Vice
 President. In his petition, the Prosecutor General argued that,
 despite his immunity, the President may be investigated in
connection with any criminal offence perpetrated in a personal
capacity and not only for high treason and violation of the
Constitution, and that an investigation against him must be
stayed rather than terminated while he is in office and can be
resumed after his term expires.

Speaking to the national radio on Sunday Geshev said that the
prosecuting magistracy does not yet have proof that the person
recorded in the conversations is Radev, and that more evidence
is to be collected.

"An investigation is being conducted by the specialized
prosecuting magistracy whose subject matter and volume are
different from what the media present them to be. The matter
concerns a contractor of the Defence Ministry regarding
deliveries worth hundreds of millions of leva made in recent
years. In the course of the investigation, the officers used
special surveillance means outside the criminal proceedings, and
 not on a warrant by a prosecutor. The investigative officers
deemed that the collected evidence was relevant to the
investigation, sent it to the supervising prosecutors who added
it to the proceedings. On January 22 the supervising prosecutors
 established that in the wiretaps, in all likelihood, it was
President Radev who was talking with Air Force Commander Gen.
Tsanko Stoikov," Geshev said. He went on to note that he would
have done the same as what the prosecutors did, and which is the
 only available option - to halt the criminal proceeding.
"Because to do anything else to establish whether Radev was
speaking with Stoikov, and to see whether a check had been truly
 quashed as a result of the call, whether this happened
ultimately, would constitute a violation of the article of the
Constitution which concerns the President's immunity" Geshev
said.

The Prosecutor General argued that the excessive media stress on
 the section of the petition to the Constitutional Court
concerning high treason overshadowed the more important aspect
of the petition. "My view is that absolute immunities do not
exist in Bulgaria. I think that when there is information and
evidence that a person enjoying immunity could have perpetrated
a crime, everything possible must be done to collect any
evidence whether a crime was committed and what crime," Geshev
said.

The Prosecutor General also commented the debates initiated by
the President on constitutional amendments, saying that the
amendments lack clear reasoning. He said the prosecuting
magistracy was not invited to participate in the discussions.

Geshev also stressed that the petition to Constitutional Court
about the President's immunity is not "a revenge on Radev" for
his refusal to duly sign the decree appointing Geshev at the
post.

At the start of November 2019 Radev refused to sign a decree
appointing Geshev as prosecutor general, and returned his
nomination to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), which had
elected him to the post. A week after the refusal, the SCJ
conclusively re-elected Geshev at the post, which he assumed in
December. NV/ZH