Bulgaria's Embattled Ex-Interior Min Ready to Give Up Immunity after Vote

Bulgaria’s former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has declared that he is ready to give up his immunity, but only after the upcoming general elections on May 12.

“Once the election is over, and once the evidence collected is presented, I will be able to evaluate what has been gathered and I will undertake actions accordingly,” Tsvetanov told supporters in the town of Kaspichan on Wednesday.

Tsvetanov’s statement follows the announcement made on Tuesday by the Sofia prosecuting authority that there was sufficient evidence indicating that Tsvetanov had committed a crime.

The Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office made clear that Tsvetanov, in his capacity as public official, had consciously allowed his subordinates to engage illegal wiretapping. Charges cannot be pressed against Tsvetanov, since he is now running for Parliament, and therefore has immunity.

Tsvetanov, who is on a cross-country tour as head of the election headquarters of center-right party GERB, faces a penalty of up to eight years of imprisonment if the prosecuting authority presses charges and succeeds to prove them in court.

Charges cannot be currently pressed against Tsvetanov, since he is now running for Parliament, and therefore has immunity.

At the end of last week, a secretly recorded conversation between former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, former Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, and already-former Sofia City Prosecutor, Nikolay Kokinov, leaked in Bulgarian media, stirring a massive scandal.

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