2nd Bulgarian Ex-Agriculture Minister May Face Charges over Land Swaps

Ex-Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil (right) may share the fate of his successor Valeri Tsvetanov (left) who has already been charged over land swap deals. Photo by BGNES

One more former Bulgarian Agriculture Minister from the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) might be charged over the notorious land swap deals.

According to a Tuesday’s report of the Standart Daily, Bulgaria’s Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, has sent a report to the Prosecutor’s Office which says that many of the land swaps deals incurring blatant losses to the Bulgarian state, had been signed by Nihat Kabil and Byurhan Abazov in their capacities of Deputy Ministers of Agriculture.

Kabil was a Deputy Minister of Agriculture under Minister Mehmed Dikme (2001-2005), and then went on to become the Agriculture Minister himself (2005-2008).

Abazov was a Deputy Minister of Agriculture under Kabil’s successor Valeri Tsvetanov (2008-2009), who became the first former Minister in Bulgaria since 1989 who was charged with violations during his term of office after the Prosecutor’s Office changed him over land swap deals I September 2009. The former head of the State Forestry Agency, Stefan Yurukov, was also charged together with him.

According to the Standart Daily, the court is expected to rule whether the Deputy Ministers had the right to seal land swap deals as they did while in office. The Bulgarian legislation says that only the Minister has that right.

If the court rules that as Deputy Ministers Kabil and Abazov had no right to seal land swap deals, the prosecutors are most likely going to press charges against them. At the same time, all land swap deals signed by the two will become null and void.

The land swap deals have become a synonym of political corruption in Bulgaria as land of top quality and location owned by the state has been swapped for much less expensive plots owned by private firms and persons thus incurring huge losses to the state as well as causing extensive environmental damage as the swapped lands are often turned into resort complexes or are otherwise exploited.

According to the World Bank, the losses incurred to the Bulgarian state from the land swap deals in the recent years amount to BGN 1 B. However, Bulgaria’s new Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, who has vowed to fight for every square meter of swapped public land, has announced data showing that the state actually lost anywhere between BGN 2 B and BGN 8 B from the land swap deals.

Since 2001, Bulgaria’s Agriculture (and Forests) Ministry has been under the control of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS).