No Charges Pressed against Bulgarian Journalist

Bulgarian journalist, Boris Mitov, left the main courthouse in Sofia without charges of leaking State secrets being pressed against him. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian journalist Boris Mitov left Monday the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office without legal charges of leaking State secrets pressed against him.

Mitov informed the crowd gathered in his support in front of the main courthouse that he told the prosecutors he did no longer possess the requested documents and they then only asked him to sign a document that he was refusing to reveal his sources and let him go.

Dozens of Bulgarian journalists and citizens staged a protest rally against freedom of speech restrictions.

The demonstrators organized themselves on Facebook, after it emerged that Mitov from the Mediapool site has been summoned for the second time Monday by the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office.

The story developed after Mitov published on the Mediapool site an article titled "The Bulgarian Watergate. And Who Will Probe the Investigators?"

In it, he explains that Deputy Sofia City Prosecutor, Roman Vasilev, as a person known to have committed a number of breaches, was hardly the best choice to probe tipoffs of illegal and mass wiretapping during the term of now-former Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, from the Cabinet of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB.

On Friday, only one hour after the article appeared in Mediapool, the journalist was summoned on the phone by Dragomir Yanchev, Prosecutor from the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office. During the questioning, Yanchev has demanded from Mitov to disclose his sources. After receiving a negative answer on grounds the latter violates journalistic ethics, the Prosecutor hinted Mitov could be prosecuted and would face up to 5 years of jail.

Yanchev firmly denies the above.

Mitov further says the fact he appeared for the Monday questioning with a well-known attorney helped a lot in changing the prosecutor's attitude.

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