At a session, the Sofia City Court terminated the court proceedings and returned the indictment in the case against the co-chairman of “Yes, Bulgaria“ Bozhidar Bozanov and the former chairman of “We Continue the Change“ Kiril Petkov to the prosecutor's office for correction of errors. The ruling is subject to appeal and protest. This is reported by BTA.
Petkov is accused of coercion against the former Minister of Electronic Government Alexander Yolovski, and Bozanov – in a crime in office related to a public procurement.
In its ruling, the court stated that the structure of the indictment is so complex and hypothetical that it leads to the conclusion that the prosecutor's office is unclear about what Bozanov is being accused of.
According to the court, the indictment cannot establish for which company Bozanov committed the acts for which he is accused. In one part of the indictment, it is stated that he tried to create favorable conditions for one company to win a public procurement contract, but later it is stated that the conditions he created helped another company. In addition, the amount of the public procurement contract is not specified. It is also not clear with which of his actions Bozanov endangered the cybersecurity of the state.
The chairman of the court panel also reasoned that the indictment also does not make it clear what Petkov said to Yolovski to instill fear. It is not clear what Petkov asked Yolovski to do and why this is illegal.
Also, in its ruling, the court indicated that there are no grounds for dividing the case.
The court president decided to cancel the preventive measures imposed on the accused - cash guarantees of 10,000 leva each.
According to Petkov's defense attorney, lawyer Daniela Dokovska, the indictment contains significant but remediable errors. She added that the case should be heard behind closed doors, as it concerns classified information.
Also, according to her, there is nothing in common between the accusations of Petkov and Bozanov and there is no reason for them to be combined into one case. Dokovska explained that in the part with the accusation of Bozanov, over 20 witnesses should be questioned who have nothing to do with the accusation of Petkov. In addition, the classified information also refers to the accusation of Bozanov. In this way, Petkov's right to a trial within a reasonable time in open sessions is violated.
In response to the opinion of lawyer Dokovska, prosecutor Georgi Moisev said that at the moment there is no reason to separate the two cases and there is no reason to believe that the case cannot be prosecuted within a reasonable time.
Dokovska and Ina Lulcheva requested that the measures for the detention of their clients be lifted, as they are not necessary.
Alexander Yolovski was constituted as a private prosecutor in the case. He did not appear at today's hearing due to official commitments.
The team of prosecutors involved in the case will decide, after reviewing the court's reasoning in detail, whether to protest, prosecutor Marina Nenkova told the media after the hearing.
Prosecutor Moisev commented on the court's ruling as "one opinion."
The court said that the accusation is so vague that it has irremediable violations. We did not object at the beginning of the case because we have an interest in it being considered as quickly as possible in order to prove my innocence. The prosecutor's office will try to correct it, if possible, but in my opinion it is not, Bozhidar Bozhanov told the media after the hearing.
According to him, the prosecutor's office is formally accusing them, but if you look at which media outlets are reporting this case, you can make a reasonable assumption about who is “attacking“ them.
The same thing happened in the case with the Sofia mayors (former deputy mayor of Sofia Nikola Barbutov, ed.), apparently the prosecutor's office has had a problem with writing the indictments recently, said lawyer Hristo Botev, defender of Alexander Yolovski, after the hearing.
When asked whether he thinks there should be such a case at all, lawyer Botev replied that Yolovski's position is not political.