Bulgaria Prosecutors: Serious Violations in Police Wiretapping Procedures

Speaking Monday at a press conference, Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov made clear that the probe had revealed numerous violations related to the deployment of surveillance equipment. Photo by BGNES

The prosecuting authority has uncovered a series of violations at Bulgaria's Interior Ministry concerning unregulated wiretapping.

A team of ten prosecutors started an inspection of the procedures for applying special surveillance devices on March 29.

The main conclusion of the probe is that the Interior Ministry created possibilities for illegal wiretapping, mediapool.bg reports.

Speaking Monday at a press conference, Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov made clear that the probe had revealed numerous violations related to the deployment of surveillance equipment and the oversight of such operations.

Tsatsarov informed that the inspection had detected malfeasance in office and abuse of wiretapping equipment.

He said that pre-trial proceedings had been opened against three directors at the Specialized Directorate Technical Operations of the Interior Ministry and one employee of the unit.

Tsatsarov also explained that important information related to the case had been deleted in a bid to sabotage the probe, adding that the prosecutors would try to recover the lost data.

On March 28, Sergey Stanishev, leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), submitted a tip-off to Tsatsarov about illegal wiretapping of politicians, businessmen and magistrates which had taken place during Tsvetan Tsvetanov's term in office as Interior Minister.

On the following day, a team of prosecutors headed by Sofia City Prosecutor Nikolay Kokinov and his Deputy Roman Vasilev was tasked with the probe at the Interior Ministry.

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