Parliament Wednesday decided, 191-0 with one abstention, to set up an ad hoc committee of inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding the activity of the group around Martin "the Notary" Bozhanov. The decision is based on the proposal of Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), GERB-UDF, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF).
The committee will have 17 members: five from GERB-UDF, four from CC-DB, three from Vazrazhdane, three from the MRF, and one from BSP for Bulgaria and There Is Such a People each. Within three months, they have to establish all facts and circumstances surrounding the possible existence of individuals and organized groups exerting influence in the justice system, in relation to information about Bozhanov's activity that was recently made public.
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.
Parliament's Deputy Chair Nikola Minchev of CC-DB was elected chair of the Ad Hoc Committee.
On Tuesday, acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov ordered ex officio checks of the 25 case files and pre-trial proceedings in which Bozhanov has been an accused, complainant, witness or a party in another capacity since 2004. The larger parts of the case files and pre-trial proceedings were conducted at the Sofia Regional Prosecution Office and concerned real estate fraud and other wrongful acts allegedly committed by Bozhanov.
/KK/
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