Nikolay Staykov: The Prosecutor’s Office saved many politicians from the uncomfortable question of their ties to Tsvetan Vassilev

Nikolay Staykov: The Prosecutor’s Office saved many politicians from the uncomfortable question of their ties to Tsvetan Vassilev

“I have read the memos from the interrogations in the KTB case very carefully. They start with a straightforward, standard question: “Do you know the main defendant Tsvetan Vassilev? Since when and what was your relationship?”

This is a highly uncomfortable question for many people who have been around, been close to, been “in the kitchen” of the bank, and benefited from the goodies and the “storehouse for money” that it represented. This is, first of all, the MP and already sanctioned under the Magnitsky list, Mr. Delyan Peevski.

To avoid the uncomfortable moment when perjury is told to an investigator and recorded in a report, the best service a prosecutor can do to such an implicated person is to find a legal way not to summon him at all.

That is why in 2014 when 12 other people and I filed the signal that started the KTB case, it was split into three so Peevski’s name could go down a separate track and a separate pre-trial procedure. Peevski’s name was outside the sheets sent to the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor’s Office.

Many politicians, first among them the former Prime Minister Borissov, would feel significant discomfort if asked the same question: “Do you know the main defendant, Tsvetan Vassilev, since when and what was your relationship?”

The biggest favor the investigating prosecutor in the KTB case Ivan Geshev did to a list of politicians was to not summon them for questioning at all. And, as we have seen, they fittingly thanked him by making him the head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office and, later – Prosecutor General.

The Prosecutor’s Office withheld information about what happened with the separate pre-trial proceedings – there were some politicians mentioned who had visited Tsvetan Vassilev’s office. There was information about 20 separate pre-trial proceedings – at some point, this information disappeared. The public interest in the topic faded – 8 years have passed.

Unless there is a radical change in the Prosecutor’s Office, we have no chance to find out what services Tsvetan Vassilev’s media did to politicians. We will not find out how Bulgartabak was privatized with the participation of KTB and VTB. And we will not find out what they talked about in their last conversation, the famous discussion in the garage in Bankya in June 2014.

Many interesting questions will remain unanswered unless there is a radical change in the Prosecutor’s Office.”

Watch the full interview here

See the ACF investigation “The KTB Case Files: The Missing Names” here