Sofia, June 4 (BTA) - Acting on its own initiative, Bulgaria's
prosecution service has instituted six case files after the US
Treasury Department and State Department announced on Wednesday
that they are sanctioning a total of six Bulgarians over their
involvement in significant corruption.

The Prosecutor General's Spokesperson Siyka Mileva said on
Friday that one of the designees: gambling mogul and fugitive
from justice Vassil Bojkov, who is under investigation by the
Specialized Prosecution Office in connection with offences other
 than the 18 charges already brought against him, will
nevertheless be checked, too.

Mileva recalled that another three of the blacklisted persons:
former deputy economy minister Alexander Manolev, former State
Agency for Bulgarians Abroad (SABA) Chair Petar Haralampiev and
former SABA Chief Secretary Krasimir Tomov, have already been
indicted for corruption offences, and the court has proceeded
with their cases.

Regarding the findings about controversial businessman and ex-MP
 Delyan Peevski, Mileva said that he has been subject to a
number of checks over the years and they will be analyzed now.

The facts cited in the US statements about all six designees
(Bojkov, Peevski, Manolev, Haralampiev, Tomov and National
Bureau for Control on Special Intelligence-Gathering Devices
Deputy Chair Ilko Zhelyazkov) will be fully checked. To this
end, the prosecution service will approach the US authorities
for further information.

The Spokesperson said that effective counter-corruption is only
possible though a dialogue between the prosecution service and
the law-enforcement authorities, but this can hardly be achieved
 while the judiciary comes under political attacks.

She assumed that a large part of the findings in the US
statements are based on materials gathered by the prosecution
service, but specified that only the court is competent to find
somebody guilty.

Wiretapping

Mileva said that an investigation has been launched into alleged
 unlawful wiretapping of opposition politicians during the
campaign for the April 4 parliamentary elections. Eleven persons
 have already been questioned, and the Chief Directorate for
Combating Organized Crime, the State Agency for National
Security and the Interior Ministry's Internal Security
Directorate have been asked to provide information. Based on the
 data collected so far, prosecutors have established that
politicians and election campaigners have not been unlawfully
surveilled.

The prosecution service will approach the National Bureau for
Control on Special Intelligence-Gathering Devices for
information about the case.

President on Sanctions

The sanctions against Bulgarian citizens under the Magnitsky Act
 are "a clear diagnosis of the regime that nurtured that
corruption," President Rumen Radev commented on Friday. "Is it
right that we should be told by the US that crimes are committed
 here and the prosecution service is turning a blind eye? The
prosecution service has sided with the establishment," he
argued. In his words, prosecutors are cracking down on
particular oligarchs while covering up others. "Bojkov was hit
after he stopped paying protection money," the head of State
said further on. RY/LG