EX Bulgarian PM Accuses Varna Police of Targeting Socialist Party

Bulgaria's Socialist party is outraged by the removal of top BSP member Gutsanov from the post of chair of the Varna Municipal Council over alleged malfeasance. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) in Varna is beginning to recover from the blow dealt by the arrest of Municipal Council Chair, Borislav Gutsanov, according to party leader, Sergey Stanishev.

Stanishev, who is also Bulgaria’s former Prime Minister, and current Member of the Parliament, elected as majority candidate from Varna, was in the Black Sea capital to take part in the meeting of the local BSP organization.

Stanishev had visited Gutsanov at his home and said the former Municipal Chair is recovering fine after the bout of pneumonia, which sent him from prison to the hospital earlier in the spring.

Gutsanov is now under house arrest following his detention at the end of March during a special police operation codenamed “Jellyfish” alongside the Director of the Varna municipality ‘Autotransport’ Department, Pencho Penchev and Yana Krusteva, the Department’s Chief Accountant.

The arrests came on allegations of a number of crimes, including the masterminding of a scam, involving high-ranking officials, embezzlement and malfeasance in office, forging of documents, and abuse of taxpayers’ money, namely for deals to purchase second-hand buses which were later sold to Varna's public transportation at much higher prices.

Gutsanov, a top member of the Bulgarian Socialist party, was removed from the post at the end of April. He has repeatedly said that the trial against him is political and has denied having any business operations with Daniel Slavov aka Dido Dankata, also detained during the Jellyfish” operation, and suspected of organizing contraband cigarette channels in the Varna area.

Stanishev reiterated Tuesday the case and the charges are purely political, adding Gutsanov was kept in jail for two months without any prosecutor’s and investigation activities only to give possibility to the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party to take over the Municipal Council and prepare for the 2011 local elections.

Meanwhile, also on Tuesday the Varna Court released Penchev to house arrest on a BGN 10 000 bond while Dankata was released three weeks ago on the record-high BGN 200 000 bail.

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