Another Bulgarian Energy Min Indicted over Belene Nuclear Plant

Delyan Dobrev, a former Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister. File photo, BGNES

Former Energy Minister Delyan Dobrev has become the third minister to be indicted over the abandoned Belene nuclear power plant (NPP) project.

"I have committed no crime... I am sure I will manage to prove my innocence very soon," BGNES wire service quotes him as saying after leaving the investigative department with the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, where he has been handed an indictment.

In October, the Chief Prosecutor demanded that Dobrev be stripped of his immunity to face charges. The outgoing government maintains he was not involved in the the millions-worth transfers in question that, the prosecution alleges, were approved by his institution and made by state-owned National Electricity Company to Russia's Atomstroyexport, which was to build Belene at the time.

Dobrev served as Bulgaria's Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister from March 2012 to the same month of next year, when the first government of outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov stepped down.

On Thursday one of his predecessors, Rumen Ovcharov, who held the energy portfolio earlier in the 2000s, was also indicted over Belene NPP on charges of abeyance. Petar Dimitrov, who took over from Ovcharov, was slapped with charges in mid-October.

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