Prosecution Ask 5 Years Jail for Ex Bulgarian Health Minister

Former Health Minister, Bozhidar Nanev, is the first Minister from the GERB cabinet to be tried in a court of law. Photo by BGNES

The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office asked Wednesday five years behind bars for former Health Minister in the cabinet Borisov, Bozhidar Nanev.

The prosecution requested from the magistrates to rule that Nanev is guilty for inflicting damages for the Ministry, calculated at BGN 2 454 319.20, which is the difference between the price offered by the British National Health Services through the British Embassy in Sofia and the price negotiated by the Ministry with "Roche Bulgaria" for the antiviral medicine Tamiflu.

The trial was postponed several times already because the other defendant in the case, the former Director of the Health Ministry's Budget and Accounting Department, Dimitrinka Nikolova, was hospitalized.

The prosecutor asked for a 2-year suspended sentence for Nikolova.

The trial is continuing Wednesday afternoon with pleas of the defense counsel.

In July 2009, Nanev was appointed as the first Health Minister of the newly elected cabinet of the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party. He resigned from the post at the end of March, 2010, after prosecutors indicted him for concluding deals unfavorable for the State by signing two Tamiflu delivery contracts with "Roche Bulgaria."

The contracts were approved on December 16, 2010 for 200 000 dozes of Tamiflu, needed to counter the swine flu epidemic in the country at the time.

Nanev is the first Minister from the GERB cabinet to be tried in a court of law.

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