Former gambling mogul and oligarch Vassil Bojkov said Saturday he is a protected witness in a case against GERB leader Boyko Borissov, former finance minister Vladislav Goranov and Borissov's PR officer - a claim that was disproved by prosecutors later in the day. The prosecution service told BTA that Bojkov was only a defendant and had never been a protected witness.
Bojkov gave an online press conference from his home where he has been under house arrest since September 5 after he was remanded in custody upon return from the United Arab Emirates on August 25, to face charges in an organized crime group case related to his gambling business.
The case he mentioned was opened in 2021 over the businessman's allegations that he was forced to pay a 20% cut of his business earnings, amounting to some BGN 60 million in total, to then prime minister Borissov and finance minister Goranov. When a new government came to power - for a short stint - later in 2021, Borissov and Goranov were briefly arrested over Bojkov's allegations but were promptly released and a court subsequently ruled that their detention had been unlawful.
"They questioned me twice for four hours, I testified and they made me a protected witness. The State is run by the mafia, the head of the mafia is Boyko Borissov. We know how the mafia operates - whoever is not convenient for them is removed in one way or another, so my life and the lives of my relatives are in great danger at the moment," Bojkov stated.
Reacting to the prosecution service's statement, Bojkov posted on his Facebook profile a witness protection decree issued by the Sofia City Prosecution Office. It says Bojkov and his family must be provided with round-the-clock security in Bulgaria and with security by technical means at their homes. It also says that on August 29, Bojkov asked the prosecution service that the Justice Ministry's Bureau for Protection of Endangered Persons provide physical protection for himself, his wife and his son on the grounds that Bojkov's health and life could be at risk as a result of his testimony.
Bojkov wrote on Facebook: "This is the document which ordered protection for me and my family in relation to the case against Borissov. Who is lying on behalf of the prosecution service?"
Plans for a return to a political career
The former gambling mogul said that his political party Bulgarian Summer will not take part in the local elections but he stated that he plans to return to an active political career in the near future. Bojkov pointed out that he came back to Bulgaria because the situation in the country "is difficult and we need to change things." "Things cannot go on like this. I have de facto achieved everything in life. From now on everything I can do is for the Bulgarians and for Bulgaria. Bulgaria has a huge silent majority, 60%, who do not come out to vote. Borissov managed to make them believe that nothing depends on them, that everything is decided abroad. There are another 4% who vote 'None Of The Above'. We will address this group of people, we will convince them that they need to wake up, as we woke them up four years ago and the protests started from my interview" he explained.
Bojkov argued that the protests in 2020 were started by his interview to bTV, in which he pointed out that the state is run by a junta and there is a mafia. "There was complete silence and then other people started speaking, protests appeared," Bojkov added.
He said he will participate in politics against the status quo, which in his words is identified with Boyko Borissov and Movement for Rights and Freedoms MP Delyan Peevski. According to him, Borissov and Peevski should be "taken out of politics". Bojkov described Continue the Change as a GERB's Komsomol organization and denied any ties with President Rumen Radev.
Bojkov argued that his return to Bulgaria had no connection with the dismissal of former Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev or with the death of businessman Alexey Petrov.
"I have nothing to worry about because I have not committed any crimes. My return to Bulgaria was foiled first by Interpol. Having a wanted bulletin, I was arrested in Dubai. Then an extradition case started, the decision of the court was not to extradite me. After that, I applied to go home. My application was granted on August 23, I came home on August 25 - that was the first flight possible. Voluntarily, on my own, without any extradition, without any coercion. When I submitted these applications, the people in the Prosecution Office asked me if I was sure that I was safe in Bulgaria - I had to sign that I was going back to Bulgaria of my own free will and on my own responsibility," Bojkov said.
He also addressed his inclusion in the Global Magnitsky Act: "The junta destroyed me, attacked me, robbed me, racketeered me and they put me under sanctions." The businessman explained that he had many meetings with the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control "I've given a lot of information, documents, records and all kinds of information that proves that I did not do these things that they're accusing me of," Bojkov added.
/MR/
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