An investigation into alleged illegal wiretapping in the Gorna Oryahovitsa Municipality building is gaining momentum after the prosecutor's office began pre-trial proceedings on a report of a wiretapping device discovered in the office of municipal employees. Over 50 witnesses have already been questioned in the case, including Mayor Nikolay Rashkov, and technical, video and audio expert reports are pending. The case is developing against the backdrop of the expected ruling on Rashkov's removal from office due to an established conflict of interest.
At the beginning of the mandate in 2023, a wiretapping device was also discovered in the office of the Chairman of the Municipal Council Ognyan Stoyanov, but no signal was submitted to the investigative authorities at that time, he revealed on the air of “Hello, Bulgaria“.
According to him, just a week after he and Mayor Nikolay Rashkov took office, they commissioned a licensed company to inspect several premises in the municipality building.
“This is my first term as Chairman of the Municipal Council. Just a week after I was elected chairman and a week after Mayor Nikolay Rashkov was sworn in, we decided together to assign a specialized company to inspect certain rooms“, explained Stoyanov.
During the inspection in his office, a device was discovered installed in an electrical outlet. “In my room, that of the chairman of the Municipal Council, there was a device that was installed in an electrical outlet, into which my computer was plugged“, he said.
According to him, the device was a microphone with a SIM card, through which the recordings could be transmitted to a mobile phone. Stoyanov indicated that during the inspection carried out at that time, it was established in whose name the card was registered. “I think it belonged to a woman who lives in a village in the Strazhitsa Municipality and has nothing to do with the municipality. This did not surprise anyone“, said the Chairman of the Municipal Council.
Despite the device being discovered in 2023, he did not file a report with the prosecutor's office. “I did not file a report in this case, as this was at the very beginning of the mandate. In my opinion, this device was most likely a legacy of the old administration and the old leadership“, commented Stoyanov.
Regarding the current investigation, he stated that he did not have more information than what was publicly known and had not been questioned as a witness. “I have not been called in as a witness to give testimony. What strikes me is that, unlike the device that was discovered by a specialized company in 2023, in this case the employees themselves took the device to some office. I do not know whether to the Ministry of Interior or to investigative bodies and I do not know how reliable it is. Let the investigators do their job“, he also said.
Stoyanov confirmed that he knows the employees who worked in the office from which the current wiretapping report was filed. According to him, they are no longer part of the municipal administration, after the Municipal Council approved a new structure of the administration at the mayor's proposal. “They are no longer employees of the municipality due to the change in the structure of the municipal administration. We, as the Municipal Council, vote on the structure, the directorates and the number of employees. Which people will remain working is the mayor's discretion“, explained the chairman of the Municipal Council.
The current investigation began after a report by a former municipal employee, who claims that a wiretapping device was found in her office. Several expert reports have already been ordered on the case, and the prosecutor's office is investigating who installed the device, when it was installed, and for what purpose.
The investigation is taking place against the backdrop of political tension in Gorna Oryahovitsa. The Municipal Election Commission is expected to review the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, which confirmed the existence of a conflict of interest with Mayor Nikolay Rashkov. The case is related to contracts for municipal lands signed after he took office under a procedure in which he participated even before becoming mayor. If the commission terminates his powers early, new mayoral elections will have to be scheduled in the municipality.