“The Eight Dwarfs” made it to the Strasbourg Court

Yavor Zlatanov, one of the victims of the alleged criminal network uncovered in the Anti-Corruption Fund’s investigation “The Eight Dwarfs,” has filed an application before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), claiming that the Bulgarian authorities violated his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

With a letter dated January 2022, the Strasbourg Court informed Zlatanov that his application will be examined with priority.

These developments come after, for an entire year and eight months, the Bulgarian authorities failed to take adequate action in response to the “Eight Dwarfs” investigation, which revealed concrete evidence of exerting undue influence to resolve legal disputes, of attempts at taking over a business with the help of law enforcement agencies, and of unlawful dispositions of seized material evidence by the Prosecutor’s Office.

The alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights

In his application to the Strasbourg Court, Yavor Zlatanov claims that in the course of the investigative proceedings against him, the Prosecutor’s Office (PO) seized his money and chattels as material evidence by using procedural means that were legitimate only on the surface. Zlatanov maintains that while the PO formally complied with the procedures laid down in the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), its actions were aimed at misappropriating the seized items through persons in close ties with the prosecutors of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) who were in charge of the case. Zlatanov further claims that his business was stolen, while he was subjected to brutal procedural duress (by being kept in custody in a life-threatening health state without adequate treatment).

Yavor Zlatanov also claims that the involved institutions — especially the PO and the MoI — practically refused to conduct an inspection based on the information released in ACF’s investigation. This refusal is also highlighted with reference to public comments expressed by the Prosecutor General, Ivan Geshev, which allegedly sought to downplay the importance of the case. The lack of control mechanisms with respect to the work of the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office — an issue already known to the EctHR — is also stressed in Zlatanov’s application.

In addition, Yavor Zlatanov alleges a lack of effective domestic remedies, since the Bulgarian courts cannot review the legality of the PO’s actions in connection with the seizure of his valuables as material evidence and their subsequent return to third parties. Zlatanov claims that the PO acted in violation of the CPC and the binding case-law of the Supreme Court of Cassation. Furthermore, he points out that there is no adequate control over the PO’s actions at the pre-trial phase of proceedings, in which the PO has full discretion.

The facts in the application

Zlatanov’s application, submitted to the Strasbourg Court by his legal representatives, the lawyers Mihail Ekimdzhiev and Katina Boncheva, is almost entirely built upon the facts revealed in ACF’s investigation of 2020 and its follow-up published in 2021.

The four parts of “The Eight Dwarfs” (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV) traced the activities of an alleged criminal network for exerting undue influence on multiple institutions headed by the ex-Director of the Sofia Investigation Service, Peter Petrov, better known by his nickname “The Euro.”

In 2021, ACF published a two-part interview (Part I, Part II) with Yavor Zlatanov and his wife Emiliya Zlatanova that supplemented the facts disclosed in the movies.

The circumstances of the case have been analyzed in detail in the publications “The full story of ‘The Eight Dwarfs’ – everything we could not tell you in the movies” and “Yavor Zlatanov’s interview for ACF confirmed the facts revealed in ‘The Eight Dwarfs.’”

Back in 2017, Iliya and Yavor Zlatanov — father and son — entered into a dispute over the assets of the Izamet group of companies and the overall management of the business. The dispute quickly grew into a serious family feud. In the summer of 2019, Iliya Zlatanov visited the restaurant “The Eight Dwarfs,” where he met with the former head of the criminal investigation department of the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, Petyo Petrov, who promised to help him resolve the family conflict. Only two days after Iliya Zlatanov indebted himself for BGN 2,816,395 to Petrov’s wife, Lyubena Petrova, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) started pressing charges, ordering arrests and performing search and seizures — all against Iliya Zlatanov’s opponents, including his son Yavor, his daughter Proletina, his wife Yuliya and other people around them. Yavor Zlatanov was arrested on charges of heading the alleged organized crime group and was subsequently placed in custody by the Specialized Criminal Court (SpCC). After performing searches of bank vaults belonging to Yavor Zlatanov and in part to Yuliya Zlatanova, the authorities seized around 35 kg of gold in the form of coins and ingots, the value of which was estimated at over BGN 4 million by the Prosecutor’s Office itself. In addition, the sum of EUR 550,000 in cash was confiscated from a bank safe of Yuliya Zlatanova.

During his stay in custody, Yavor Zlatanov’s health deteriorated considerably due to a kidney infection that later led to the surgical removal of one of his kidneys, while the other one sustained severe damage. Yavor was continuously pressed to transfer his shares in the family business to a strawman indicated by the group around Petrov; the same tactic was employed with regards to his father Iliya.

The SPO disposed of the cash and gold seized from Yavor Zlatanov and his mother by returning it to Iliya Zlatanov and Dimitar Lambovski, who had nothing to do with the conducted investigation. This was done on the basis of false documents and in violation of the applicable procedural rules. Both Zlatanov and Lambovski claim that the valuables were taken by Lyubena Petrova in front of the SPO building. There is no information whether the claims have been investigated to date, despite the fact that the SPO is a public building dotted with surveillance cameras.