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– Yavor Zlatanov
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will give priority to the complaint of Yavor Zlatanov – one of the victims of the scheme revealed in the investigation of the Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) “Eight Dwarfs”. Zlatanov’s complaint is for violations of the European Convention on Human Rights by the Bulgarian authorities, the Anti-Corruption Fund announced.
The fact that the complaint will be dealt with as a matter of priority means that the court has ruled that it addresses large-scale problems.
The investigation, broadcast in two seasons in the summer of 2020 and 2021, first showed the story of the owner of the elevator plant “Izamet” Iliya Zlatanov, who in an attempt to resolve the conflict with his son Maple and another co-owner was advised to turn for help to the former head of the capital’s investigation, Petyo Petrov, known by his nickname Petyo Evroto.
As a result, a few days later Yavor Zlatanov was arrested on charges and investigation for organized crime group for racketeering. According to Zlatanov’s father, the prosecutor’s office later confiscated a large amount of gold and money from the family, which was eventually misappropriated by Petrov’s then wife, Lyubena. In the end, the Zlatans, a father and son, were forced to transfer much of their business to individuals named by Petyo Petrov, his wife and their lawyers. In the second season before ACF and Yavor Zlatanov presented his version. He confirmed much of what his father said, telling him that while he was under arrest, his health deteriorated and he lost one of his kidneys. This was used as a form of pressure to transfer part of his business.
The case of the “Eight Dwarfs” entered the list of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, which he submitted to the prosecutor’s office. There is no evidence that the state prosecution has verified the data provided by the Anti-Corruption Fund, which involved the names of prosecutors and magistrates.
What is alleged in the appeal of Yavor Zlatanov to the court
Procedural coercion, use of seemingly legitimate procedural means and refusal of the institutions – the Ministry of Interior and the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate, as well as lack of domestic remedies. These are some of the arguments of Yavor Zlatanov, stated in his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, according to the Anti-Corruption Fund. His legal representatives are the lawyers Mihail Ekimdzhiev and Katina Boncheva.
“In his appeal to the European Court in Strasbourg, Yavor Zlatanov claims that the seizure of money and property as material evidence in the course of the investigation against him was allowed by using seemingly legitimate procedural means, in formal compliance with the rules of the Criminal Procedure Code. Zlatanov also claims that his business was seized through brutal procedural coercion and detention in a life-threatening condition. in the absence of adequate treatment). “
According to Zlatanov, there is a de facto refusal of the involved institutions – mostly the prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Interior – to check the data presented in the journalistic investigation. “This refusal was examined through the prism of the public comments of Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev on the case, which belittle him, and emphasizes the well-known to the ECtHR lack of control of the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office,” said the ACF.
Yavor Zlatanov also claims the lack of effective domestic remedies, as the court cannot control the legality of the actions of the SP, with which Zlatanov’s valuables seized as material evidence were returned to others in violation of the Criminal Procedure Code and the mandatory practice of the Supreme Court of Cassation. , nor can it effectively control the procedural actions during the pre-trial phase of the trial, which is under the full guidance of the prosecution.
Who is Petyo Petrov and his wife – here
Analysis of the facts from the first and second seasons of the investigation – here and here
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