Prosecutor’s Office Denies Ordering Unauthorized Expert Inspection in Chief Prosecutor’s Explosion Case

The prosecutor’s office did not order an expert outside the official list to conduct an inspection or other investigative action at the scene of the explosion on the car of the chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev. This is clear from a message from the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, which is leading the investigation.

After more than 10 days of silence on the subject, the prosecutors finally deemed it necessary to provide fragmentary and vague information. Their message is centered more around refuting facts than clarifying the scandalous case. The prosecutor’s office explains that it does not agree with “all comments and interpretations”. However, he agrees that it is still unclear what exactly happened on May 1.

It is not clear with which formulations the prosecutors disagree – whether with their own, that this is an assault, or with the suspicions of staging.

The filed case is about terrorism. This wording was used at the very beginning, when the head of the national investigation, Borislav Sarafov, loudly explained that there had been an attempt on the life of his superior, and he escaped only by chance.

Sarafov also referred to the Israeli expert who was of the opinion that it was a blast to kill, not to intimidate. Just a few days later, the head of the investigation turned against Geshev and announced that he had been deceived by him into traveling with his family. He then accused him of direct interference in the investigation, explaining that Geshev ordered the deputy head of the investigation, Yasen Todorov, to have the site inspected by the Israeli expert, who has so far remained anonymous. However, it is known that he arrived in our country “accidentally” an hour and a half before the explosion.

“The supervising prosecutors did not order the performance of procedural-investigative actions with the participation of an expert, outside the list of experts of the competent court and which does not meet the requirements of the regulation on the registration, qualification and remuneration of experts. The supervising prosecutors did not allow persons who did not have the right to be there to the scene of the accident“, the message reads.

Sarafov himself admits that the expert was admitted by the investigators. However, he claims that the foreigner did not touch evidence, nor did he perform other investigative actions. According to him, it is only a visual inspection. The problem, however, is why it was allowed at all since there is no legal basis for it. Now the prosecutors are justifying that it was not at their behest. According to Sarafov, the order came from Geshev.

In order not to divulge more details of the investigation, the prosecutor’s office has resorted to its usual trick – a ban on giving information with the justification of a provision of the Criminal Procedure Code.

This is another demonstration of hypocrisy, because the prosecutor’s office has repeatedly released sensitive information on various investigations, including and the SRC, as long as this is to its benefit. Now, however, he is trying to ban the giving of data.