site.btaProsecution Service Summons Key Figures in Sofia's Waste Crisis Response, Deputy Mayor Sees "Institutional Pressure"

The prosecution service summoned the Sofia Deputy Mayor Nadezhda Bobcheva, and the Director of the Waste Treatment Plant, Nikolay Savov, for questioning, the Sofia Municipality press center announced on Thursday. The reason for the interrogation is unknown, the Municipality added.

The letter received from the Sofia City Prosecution Office states that the interrogations are being conducted in connection with a pre-trial investigation, but the subject of the case has not been specified, the statement further reads. Savov’s questioning is scheduled for Thursday, and Bobcheva’s for Friday.

The two officials are directly involved in organizing the crisis waste management measures in the Lyulin and Krasno Selo boroughs, where Sofia Municipality is currently implementing an emergency logistics plan to ensure timely waste removal and maintain cleanliness in the urban environment, the Municipality stated.

In recent months, the Sofia Municipal Waste Treatment Enterprise has been subjected to multiple inspections by various state authorities, including regarding the organization of waste treatment activities and the procedures for supervising subcontractors, the Municipality also said.

Deputy Mayor Nadezhda Bobcheva also wrote on Facebook that Nikolay Savov is being questioned by the prosecution service and that she is next, while the topic remains unknown.

“In the midst of the waste crisis – during the very days when our entire team is on the ground to ensure the city’s cleanliness – two of the people most responsible for managing the situation are being subjected to yet another round of institutional pressure,” she stated.

Bobcheva added that she and Savov are serving the people of Sofia and will not give in to this pressure.

A few months ago, a procedure was launched to select companies for waste collection in several parts of the capital. A Turkish company which bid for a contract for the two boroughs had four of its trucks set on fire and withdrew from the competition. "This left a single participant, which won the contract, and this is a company linked to Taki [an alias of the controversial businessman Hristoforos Amanatidis]," Yes, Bulgaria Co-Chair and MP Ivaylo Mirchev said on September 19, adding that waste disposal in Sofia had previously cost BGN 144 per tonne, while the company connected to Taki offered BGN 420 per tonne. Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev rejected the offer. Earlier in the week, Terziev said the situation stems from “a clash between two worlds — the old one, where people with nicknames dictate the rules, and the new one, where citizens demand transparency and justice”. He insisted the municipality would not yield to “mafia practices” and thanked volunteers and neighbouring municipalities for assisting in the clean-up. Emergency municipal operations were launched, involving small collection teams and trucks transferring waste to larger containers for disposal at the Yana facility near Sofia.