First Former Government Minister Charged in Bulgaria

Tsvetanov became the first high-ranking official from the previous Socialist-led government of Sergey Stanishev to face charges. Photo by BGNES

Former Agriculture Minister Valeri Tsvetanov has been officially charged with malfeasance in office, it emerged on Tuesday hours after he was called for interrogation at the National Investigation Service.

Valeri Tsvetanov, former agriculture minister, and Stefan Yurukov, former head of the forest agency, allegedly made illegal land swaps, one of the most widely spread corruption schemes during the previous Socialist-led government.

Tsvetanov has been interrogated about fifteen deals, backdated and sealed at the end of the term of the previous government, prosecutors said.

Yurukov is charged with sealing unprofitable deals worth BGN 4,5 M.

The investigation into the case is continuing.

The news comes as the new center-right government is making efforts to convince Brussels that it has set out on an all-out war on corruption and organized crime.

In his first euro-test, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borissov is leaving for Brussels on Wednesday, where he is due to present cases and evidence that the country is able to absorb transparently European aid.

The charges raised against the former agriculture minister are said to be the strongest card in Borisov's hands.

The previous parliament imposed a ban on all land swaps in January under pressure from dozens of environmental groups.

It was namely the GERB party of Borisov, backed by environmentalists, which raised alarm over of large-scale land swaps at the beginning of May.

Nearly fifty deals, in which state-owned land was allegedly swapped for private plots in less attractive or lower-priced parts of the country, have been greenlighted by the State Forest Agency at the beginning of the year before the ban on them was promulgated, GERB representatives said.

They presented a list of the land swaps, the majority of which concern plots along the Black Sea coast and in the mountain resorts. The state has set a price ranging between BGN 0,24 to BGN 27 per square meter, way down below the market price of EUR 100 per square meter.

State administration officials are suspected of having close links with politicians whose vested interests the land swaps served.

 

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