Secrecy Surrounds Formal Inquiry into Delyan Peevski’s Sanctioning Under Magnitsky Act

While the Prosecutor’s Office seems willing to provide information on some cases of high public interest — even showing materials from ongoing investigations at press conferences — on others it chooses to remain completely silent.

Such is the case with the inquiry ordered by the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation in June 2021, following the US government’s decision to impose sanctions against politician and businessman Delyan Peevski under the Global Magnitsky Act. 

Almost two years after the start of the inquiry, no further information has been provided. The Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) has attempted to follow up on the case for the purposes of its annual report monitoring official investigations into high-level corruption. We asked the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation for details about the inquiry. The response we received was that the Prosecutor’s Office was unable to provide information about the outcome of the inquiry because the required information was “not subject to public disclosure”.

It turns out that information about some investigations is subject to public disclosure even when this information has been obtained through special surveillance means. This is the case despite the many legal restraints on the application of special surveillance means and the disclosure of information obtained through using them. In other cases, however, the relevant information is not subject to public disclosure even when it concerns a prosecutor’s decision on the outcome of an inquiry.

The following is an excerpt from the letter that ACF received from the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation:

“This concerns your request to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation, sent via email on 23 February 2023, concerning the numbers of the case files, the subject of the proceedings and the outcome of the inquiry of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation from June 2021. The inquiry concerns Delyan Slavchev Peevski and has been initiated following the US Government’s announcement of sanctions against Mr. Peevski under the Global Magnitsky Act. Please note that this information cannot be provided.

The required information is outlined in the case files and, thus, is not subject to public disclosure. On the contrary, as per Art.8 of the Manual on Case Filing and Documentation Handling Activities of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bulgaria, such information can only be provided by the chief prosecutor of the respective branch of the Prosecutor’s Office. The steps to request such information include filing an official request on behalf of persons subject to the criminal proceedings (the ACF is clearly not such a person) and obtaining permission from the prosecutor handling the case.”