Miss Bulgaria Ivayla Bakalova speaks out against former Prime Minister in “Barcelonagate” scandal

• One person holds the state hostage to his own interests, she believes
• People are afraid to speak, and that’s completely normal. The institutions are under control, Bakalova revealed

“I have also received threats regarding “Barcelonagate”. Several times people from Mr. Borisov’s close circle came to warn me that what I am doing is brave, but I have a family, two children already. Mr. Borisov has said that he will finish us sooner or later”, said Ivayla Bakalova in the program “Hello Bulgaria” on Nova TV.

Yesterday, the model was questioned in the pre-trial proceedings “Barcelonagate” against former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, for which they want his immunity. The proposal was addressed to Ivan Geshev by the supervising prosecutors because sufficient evidence of a crime had been collected.

“As a witness, I can no longer say anything. I have said enough before. For me, what is happening in the state is terrible and unprecedented. One person is holding the state hostage to his own interests,” she added.

She commented that on Wednesday before the prosecutor’s office she confirmed everything she had been saying over the years.

“The prosecutor’s office was apparently deeply asleep for political reasons and has now woken up. Maybe this is Bulgaria’s chance to have some normalcy,” believes Bakalova.

“By law, if I say anything I will be prosecuted and obstruct the investigation. I think there is a financial crime. I am not a prosecutor to tell, nor a judge to judge. The justice system is very sick and everyone needs to realize that this is not normal”, commented Miss Bulgaria 2001.

“They hit people who have done nothing. It’s not just this case. Two years ago, something terrible and nightmarish happened to me and my family, it had nothing to do with justice,” Bakalova said.

Two years ago, the businessman Veselin Denkov, with whom Bakalova lives, was detained on charges of being an organized criminal group and usury. He was charged in several cases after his participation in the anti-government protests in 2020. One of them is for inciting the murder of Stanka Marangozova, which was returned by the Military Court to the Prosecutor’s Office due to shortcomings in the prosecution and investigation. The other is about the extortion of the same woman, which was returned several times by the court of the prosecution.

“The scheme is a nightmare. It starts from the lowest levels and goes to the highest. People are afraid to speak and that’s quite normal,” revealed the model.

“The fact that he says that he has not been in power for two years is an absolute lie. The institutions are under control, he has personnel there,” she commented.

“Denkov is accused of usury, but none of the witnesses connect him with this. Some of them admit in the courtroom that they were pressured to testify against him. I invite everyone to come to the courtroom to see what a farce it is. He he refused to pay at the lower levels and someone pressed enter to crush him. Before he was arrested, he went to Sotir Tsatsarov at KPCONPI to report that he was being blackmailed. After three days, he was included in a criminal group, with people he doesn’t know,” Bakalova said.

Bakalova revealed that after the interrogation, the prosecutor’s office also conducted a police inspection of Veselin Denkov’s restaurant based on a report from 2010.

“September 2020, two institutions went into this same restaurant and couldn’t find anything to grab onto,” she said.

Apart from Bakalova, the former executive director of “Lukoil” Valentin Zlatev also appeared at the prosecutor’s office for questioning.

The Spanish media “El Periodico” wrote about the house in Barcelona in an investigation at the beginning of 2020, when Borisov was prime minister for the third time. It was then claimed that the model Borislava Yovcheva and her child from Borisov live in the property. The GERB leader denies having anything to do with both the property and the woman and child.

“Borisov thinks that in 12 years he has created a rule of law. Why didn’t he give himself immunity now? Let the court decide if he is guilty,” urged Bakalova.

2 years ago, she gave an interview to the Anti-Corruption Fund, in which she said that she helped Borislava Yovcheva move to another country with her child and made it clear that she knew a lot about the case.