site.btaSofia City Prosecution Office Investigates Alert From Petar "the Euro" Petrov against European Delegated Prosecutor Teodora Georgieva, 2 Other Prosecutors

The Sofia City Prosecution Office is investigating a bribery alert from former investigator Petar “the Euro” Petrov against European Delegated Prosecutor Teodora Georgieva, the head of the Sofia District Prosecution Office Nevena Zartova, as well as against a prosecutor from the Sofia City Prosecution Office, the Sofia City Prosecution Office confirmed to BTA here on Tuesday.

The alert was received last week. It has been assigned to a supervising prosecutor and an investigation has been launched, Deputy City Prosecutor Hristo Krastev said. He also pointed out that it is not known whether the report was actually filed and signed by Petrov.

Krastev recalled that the Petrov was declared a national and international wanted person and there was a European arrest warrant issued in connection with the Eight Dwarfs case.

Petrov, a lawyer in private practice, headed the investigation department of the Sofia City Prosecution Office in 2013-2015 and is alleged to have played a key role in various corrupt schemes. He is a key figure in the Eight Dwarfs investigation into trade in influence and theft of companies in the judiciary and was charged in the case together with his ex-wife Lyubena Petrova and prosecutor Dilyan Deyanov. As part of the same pre-trial proceedings, Petar Petrov is wanted by Europol and the Schengen Information System.

Asked for a comment, European delegated prosecutor Teodora Georgieva categorically denied the allegations against her. Georgieva added that no such alert had been submitted to the European Public Prosecution Office and no investigation was underway. She pointed out that it was within the competence of the Bulgarian Prosecution Office to establish Petrov's whereabouts and to seek explanations from him for these allegations. The European delegated prosecutor added that the Prosecution should find out whether Petrov was the author of the alert and, if not, who the author was, as well as verify its content.

“I cannot comment, I have not seen the signal, I am not familiar with it,” Zartova told BTA.