site.btaCC-DB Co-Floor Leader Denkov: Varna Mayor Detention Is Political Repression

The detention of Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev amounts to repression rather than the pursuit of justice, CC-DB Co-Floor Leader Nikolay Denkov said on the sidelines of Parliament on Friday. 

The Sofia Court of Appeal had ordered Kotsev and two municipal councillors to be remanded in custody, while only businessman Ivaylo Marinov was released on bail.

Denkov commented that in the case of the Varna mayor, the goal is not to deliver justice but to exercise repression.

The Sofia Court of Appeal ruled late Thursday to keep Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev in detention. The magistrates also decided to keep municipal councillors Yordan Kateliev and Nikolay Stefanov in custody. Only businessman Ivaylo Marinov was released, as the court found no evidence linking him to the other three.

“What we learned yesterday, and what the appellate judge clearly said, is that the case is being heard by the wrong court and the wrong prosecutor’s office. This is because the person in question, Plamenka Dimitrova, gave testimony that she had allegedly heard something about some MP,” Denkov said. 

He noted that there was no additional evidence, no recordings included in the case, nothing that the court could use. “So for eight months, instead of doing its work, the prosecution has kept this case ‘on ice’ to use it whenever convenient,” CC-DB said.

“Yesterday it became clear that during the pre-trial proceedings, the appellate court cannot exercise control over the prosecution, and this opens the door for prosecutorial arbitrariness during the pre-trial process. We cannot allow this,” Denkov went on.

According to Denkov, the entire prosecution is based on the testimony of two key witnesses, one of whom has already withdrawn their statements, saying they were made under duress, which, if true, is itself a crime. The prosecution remained silent on Thursday, Denkov noted.

The second witness is Plamenka Dimitrova, who during recent years under the GERB administration won public contracts worth over BGN 50 million and is now losing one under the Kotsev administration, with three judicial instances confirming she lost for quoting a higher price.

Denkov answered a question, saying he has no contact with Varna Deputy Mayor Dian Ivanov and does not know what is happening with him, nor has any pressure been exerted on Ivanov to retract his original testimony.

“After we have had rigged elections, as proven by the Constitutional Court, after there is a prosecution with no control over it, after there are court cases and the imprisonment of political figures and elected officials of Varna, we are now already in a state of dictatorship,” Denkov said.

“There are not enough handcuffs for the people who are free; we will not permit this country to become a breeding ground for corruption and disorder,” Denkov said.

“We are seeing an attempt by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning to seize the entire party system and, using what they have already taken over, to go after all free people and exercise one-man rule whenever Peevski calls someone,” CC-DB Co-Chair Assen Vassilev commented. “You also saw what happened to [Vice President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria] Todor Kapitanov at the Trakia Motorway protest,” he continued. “Right now, the law is being violated in the most egregious manner,” Vassilev said.