Open letter to the Prosecutor General and the Chairpersons of the Anti-Corruption Commission and SANS: Question Delyan Peevski on His Allegations

Dear Sirs,

Yesterday and the day before, Delyan Peevski, a Member of Parliament and leader of a parliamentary political group, made allegations — publicly and with all the gravitas of his position — of unlawful activities in the Presidency of the Republic of Bulgaria. Mr Peevski’s exact words about the Presidency, reiterated several times, were: “a dark institution full of cash from the looting of the state”. He also mentioned two names: Koprinkov and Sotir Ushev.

In a state governed by the rule of law, such a statement by an MP and leader of a parliamentary group is sufficient grounds for relevant institutional actions to clarify the allegations made. Such actions should typically start with Mr. Peevski’s questioning. We would like to remind all public officials that, under the Criminal Procedure Code, should they have information about any wrongdoing, they have an express duty to notify the authorities rather than making unsubstantiated media statements. Therefore, we suggest that you clarify the existence or absence of such information and inform us and all Bulgarian citizens. We believe it is important to establish whether this is a case of a threat issued through the media or whether there is evidence of actual wrongdoing.

Such one-sided political statements made in a media environment where no critical questions are answered and without subsequent institutional action are extremely damaging to democracy, regardless of the values that their authors claims to uphold. Meanwhile, Bulgarian society was never duly informed about the results of the institutional checks concerning Mr Peevski himself — a fact which facilitated his return to politics in the first row of the Bulgarian Parliament, despite his sanctioning for corruption in the USA and Great Britain.

Your institutions need to act in order to dispel the doubts that they are only convenient tools for