ACF’s “List of Quick Control” investigation also reached the Strasbourg Court
After “The Eight Dwarfs,” a second major Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) video investigation in recent years, “List of Quick Control: The Story of Veselin Denkov and Specialized Justice” has reached the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECHR).
In 2021, in a three-part video investigation (Part 1 “Talking to God”, Part 2 “Partly Legal” , Part 3 “When the Standard Way Doesn’t Work”), the ACF told the story of the vicissitudes with specialized justice of the Sofia businessman Veselin Denkov and his partner Ivayla Bakalova.
After being advised for years to pay a “peace of mind” fee but not doing so, in the protest summer of 2020, Denkov was remanded in custody. This happened in the course of a lightning-fast criminal proceeding by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for participation in an organized criminal group for usury. Although outside the specific subject matter of the case, the investigation by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office also sought to link the businessman to the financing of protests against then Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev. However, the evidence of Denkov’s involvement in organizing the demonstrations is primarily the testimony of anonymous witnesses who did not perceive anything personally but “heard it said.” During Denkov’s stay in detention, Bakalova was contacted by various intermediaries – people with multiple contacts in the institutions – who offered assistance to get him released. Instead of collaborating with them, she exposed them in the ACF films.
As in The Eight Dwarfs, the numerous reports of alleged networks of corrupt influence in the justice system have not moved the Bulgarian institutions at all. To date, they are not known to have launched any formal criminal investigation into the cases.
However, Denkov and Bakalova, through their lawyer Mihail Ekimdzhiev, are addressing the ECHR with a complaint against Bulgaria. The Court registered the complaint in June 2022 and is expected to examine it on its merits.
The complaint alleges several breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights. The most significant of them is that, through seemingly lawful interference with the complainant’s rights, such as the right to liberty and security, Denkov has been repressed for legitimately exercising his right to freedom of expression by participating in protests against the government.
At the heart of the alleged violation is the ongoing criminal proceedings against the applicant, the smokescreen (fumus persecutionis) of which conceals the real purpose of the authorities – an institutional vendetta against the applicant for his participation in anti-government protests.
According to the complaint, the violation is proven by a logical, legal, and chronological analysis of the relevant facts of Denkov’s case, but in the specific context of Bulgaria. The ECHR is already familiar with it in other cases against Bulgaria, including the one on the complaint of Yavor Zlatanov in the case of “The Eight Dwarfs.”
Read more about the “List of Quick Control: The Story of Veselin Denkov and Specialized Justice” here