site.btaContinue the Change Co-leader Kiril Petkov Indicted for Attempted Coercion

The Sofia City Prosecution Office Friday indicted Continue the Change co-leader Kiril Petkov for coercion. He is free on BGN 10,000 bail.

Petkov said he would appeal both the restriction and the amount of bail. He told reporters: "This indictment is so absurd it is unclear what it is about. I wrote that I do not understand the indictment."

On February 28, acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov asked Parliament to strip of immunity two ranking MPs of Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria: Kiril Petkov and Bozhidar Bozhanov, so that they could be prosecuted for coercion. He was acting on a request by the Sofia City Prosecution Office.

Petkov was indicted for attempting to coerce Alexander Yolovski, the then electronic governance minister, into doing something against his will. On October 2, 2023, he allegedly told Yolovski in an aggressive tone that he must consult Bozhanov about all dismissals of staffers hired by Bozhanov, about all strategic matters and public procurement contract awards. Petkov also said Yolovski must hold weekly meetings with Bozhanov and all important decisions must be approved by him. Petkov allegedly threatened that unless Yolovski complied, there would be negative consequences for him, both professionally and personally.

On Thursday, Bozhanov was indicted for abuse of office in connection with a public procurement contract from his days as electronic governance minister in the Cabinet of Nikolay Denkov between May and June 2022. The prosecution service argued that he had breached the Classified Information Protection Act and the established public procurement rules. Bozhanov allegedly provided the director of the Electronic Governance Infrastructure Executive Agency with a file on a flash drive containing a technical specification, and instructed that it should be used for a public procurement procedure worth nearly BGN 18 million. The technical specification was prepared in violation of the established information security procedures.

Bozhanov told the press on his way into the Sofia City Prosecution Office the charges were "preposterous, they claimed things that never happened" and were meant as "a publicity stunt".