140 of the Upper Echelons - Ministers, Deputies, Mayors, Investigated for Corruption

140 senior officials, including deputies, ministers, deputy ministers, mayors, agency heads, agents of DANS (State Agency for National Security), police officers, tax and customs officers, are being investigated for corruption in Bulgaria.

The cases against 101 of them are at pre-trial stage, and there is an indictment filed in court against 39 of them.

This is became clear from the report by the Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov on "The results of the counteraction of corruption for senior public officials" presented to the National Security Consultative Council (KSCS) on April 8th this year.

The council ended without an unanimous position, and between the ruling and the opposition were observed sparks and mutual attacks in distorting the truth. 

Sotir Tsatsarov has submitted the cases brought against senior public officials, those who are still in pre-trial proceedings and for whom indictments have been filed. The other data is related to final cases or those which were decided at first instance.

Rumen Ovcharov, Delyan Dobrev and Traycho Traykov are among the accused. Ovcharov and Dobrev have been accused of dereliction on the Belene NPP, Traikov - for the sale of a 33% state stake in EVN.

Two former health ministers are also accused - Petar Moskov for a crime in the vaccine case, and his successor -  Ilko Semerdjiev for coercion. On this charge, he was acquitted at first instance, which Tsatsarov noted in the report.

The other defendant is the Defense former minister Nikolay Nenchev. Among the accused is also the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the "Borisov 2" office, Daniel Mitov. He is accused of misuse of trust and is linked to a public procurement order for airline tickets.

Among the mayors who have been charged are Ivan Totev, his deputy Dimitar Katsarski, Dimitar Kolev, Evgeni Krusev, Marin Rachev, Danail Valov, Magdalena Ivanova, Desislava Ivancheva and her deputy Bilyana Petrova.

Former and current MPs are also being investigated for corruption offenses. One of them is former MP GERB Zhivko Martinov

Elena Yoncheva, deputy from the left is accused for money laundering. Socialist Manol Genov is accused of buying votes. The former MRF MP Ilia Iliev is also accused of buying votes.

Dr. Georgi Mihaylov from BSP and his colleague Svetla Bachvarova Piralkova are acquitted at first instance.

Accused were also Lazar Lazarov, Elena Kostadinchev and Stanislav Lutov.

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