GERB and EPP stir up a scandal and use, in addition to the European Parliament, the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office. It is not true that Brussels found that the photos and video from the home of Boyko Borisov with the gold bars and the bundles of euros are manipulated, as claimed by GERB. There is no such conclusion in any document of the European Parliament. Something more – there is no such finding in the letter of the Bulgarian prosecutor’s officestates the Bulgarian MEP from the BSP Elena Yoncheva on her personal Facebook page.
On Wednesday, July 13, Tomasz Zdehovski, a European Member of Parliament from the EPP, of which GERB is a part, reported that a letter from the Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev stated that five examinations of the photos and the video of the drawer in the home of Boyko Borisov were carried out. They are being manipulated, he said.
As a member of the European Parliament’s Democracy Monitoring Group, which monitors the situation in #Bulgaria, I have the letter from Bulgaria. It was received at the end of June and in the monitoring group that visited Sofia in the fall of 2021.
We have not commented on it because there is no significant progress in it on the questions raised for public interest investigations – #Barcelonagate, the bars in the drawer in the bedroom of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, etc. Regarding the examination of the photographs, it is expressly written: “It has been established that since the analyzed files are not the originals, but copies of them, it is not possible to establish exactly what was filmed and when”.
As a member of the monitoring group, already on Thursday I will propose to schedule a hearing on the situation in Bulgaria in the fall. There is a good chance that the Attorney General will be invited to him to explain the progress of the bullion photo cases and #Barcelonagate.
Mister Tomasz Zdehovski misinterpreted the informationa.
In this regard, several facts are interesting:
Four of the five examinations of the photo and video files with #the bars conclude that no firm conclusions can be drawn. It was found that the metadata of the files had been changed so that the date they were made and the device used were not visible. A single expert claims that there is a difference in the resolutions of some images. This, as well as the fact that the files are not genuine, “questions the veracity of the captured images”. At the same time, several expertises of the Bivol website team, for example, show that the photos are not manipulated.
The statement of Tomas Zdehovski was presented by quite a few Bulgarian media, as well as by the representatives of GERB, as “Brussels established”. This is completely wrong – the letter he refers to is from the prosecution of #Bulgaria.
Tomasz Zdehovski’s statement was made at the beginning of a meeting of the Budget Committee of the European Parliament without the topic being a subject of discussion on the agenda. The letter from Bulgaria was received in response to questions raised during a mission by European MPs in Sofia in April. Tomasz Zdehovski was at the head of the mission. In the same letter, there is also information on the Barcelonagate case, but it was not communicated, nor was the prediction of the Attorney General that the work on the case may stop due to the closure of the specialized justice.
It is particularly ironic that the letter from #prosecution became public knowledge on the day the European Commission distributed the annual report on the rule of law. Once again, the criticisms in it are aimed at the effectiveness of the fight against corruption in #Bulgariathe lack of final sentences for representatives of the authorities, as well as the use of the judicial system to deal with journalists.
The attempt to grant an indulgence to former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov comes at a time when Bulgaria is in a political crisis. It is obvious to the analysts that it is extremely difficult to form a majority in the National Assembly while at the same time GERB and DPS remain in isolation. “Washing” the image of the chairman of GERB Boyko Borisov for the general public would make his participation in some form in power a little more acceptable.
Such a development will set the country back years, to where we started in 2020. We must not allow it.
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