{"id":26509,"date":"2021-03-05T12:26:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T11:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bird.bg\/?p=26509"},"modified":"2023-05-27T11:24:15","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T09:24:15","slug":"prb-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bird.bg\/en\/prb-secrets\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 1,500 files of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office are “secret”. Among them are those with great public interest."},"content":{"rendered":"

On the updated website of the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office there is a not very visible section in which lawyers, journalists, citizens and anyone interested can consult about the progress of certain pre-trial proceedings or inspection, as long as they know the number of the prosecutor’s file. That’s in theory. In practice, however, it turns out that many files on investigations with high public interest are deliberately hidden from the public, contrary to the allegedly proclaimed “policy of transparency” by the new head of the PRB Ivan Geshev<\/strong>. The BSRD automated the extraction of information on all files of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the period from 2012 to 2020 and found that over 1,500 files 11,800 or 13% were hidden.<\/p>\n

When referring to an available file, the result usually looks like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In this particular case, this is the probe into the concession of Yulen, ordered personally by Tsatsarov in 2018, at the height of anti-government protests regarding the appetites for the construction of Pirin National Park. The termination decree remains a mystery in itself, as the Prosecutor’s Office refuses to provide it even to the signalmen of the Green Movement themselves. This insolence is not an isolated case. Here you can see the position of Borislav Sandov on the occasion of this refusal. The supervising prosecutor in this file was personally Rumyana Arnaudova, Tsatsarov’s spokeswoman. It turns out, however, that soon after Geshev came to power, Arnaudova was replaced with a personal resolution of the new Chief. The name of the new supervising prosecutor is kept secret. It is he (she?) who is also the person who terminated the file in August 2020, at the height of the protests against Geshev and Borisov.<\/p>\n

In addition, pay attention to the structure of this so-called. Report. Only the last development on the file is shown, but not what happened back in time to arrive at this result. In other words, one should almost check every week what is happening, and take screenshots of the current state of the file. For example, if subsequently there is another development in the file (assignment of audits to the NRA, for example) \u2013 then the next check will show only this new development and nothing before. For comparison, in the registry systems of the courts at any moment one can see the movement and development of the case in its entirety and completeness \u2013 from its submission to the court to the adjudication of the
\ndecision\/judgment.<\/p>\n

Moreover, this way it hides whether and how long the prosecution has been inactive on a file, if, for example, “from above” instructions are issued to put the case “on corpses”. Since only the last act in the file is visible at any given time, it cannot be understood how much time has elapsed between two or more investigative actions. Sometimes this time is measured in months, but sometimes, as BIRD has had the opportunity to see \u2013 in years!<\/span><\/p>\n

Hidden files of great public interest<\/h3>\n

This is what the result looks like if we enter the number of another case of high public interest. It is about the check on the bars and bundles of Borisov, led by the infamous <\/span>Boryana Betsova<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/a>, as well as from her colleagues Vihra Pophristova and Ivaylo Petrov. Information about B.C. 10019\/2020 is gone, as if the file does not exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
The file 10019\/ 2020 is not opened, but this exact number was reported by Boryana Betsova in correspondence with journalists from Bivol.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And here the question immediately arises \u2013 why should this information be hidden?! To date, we already know the sad result \u2013 the proceedings were stopped with ridiculous motives. Namely, that they did not find who had taken the photos, that it was not clear whether this was a staging (just as Borisov claims, of course) and that it is not clear whether the bars and bundles were real. Despite the clearly visible serial numbers of some of them. However, if the prosecution itself had not deigned to disclose this scarce information, we would never have learned what was happening with the file! Not to mention that the prosecution stubbornly refuses to publish the decree itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s repeat \u2013 the file undoubtedly exists and the result on it undoubtedly exists. Why is it not visible on the prosecutor’s website?<\/strong> Is it marked “secret” or “national security”? In fact, the reason turned out to be much more trivial, according to BIRD sources. When there are “instructions from above” a file to be kept secret, a “space” or empty space is intentionally placed in front of the file number. Thus, for the externally accessible user interface (through the PRB website), this file remains completely invisible. These simple Baiganyov’s tricks are strikingly reminiscent of the corrupt Cyrillic script used by a number of state institutions, about which they first wrote <\/span>
\n BIVOL<\/b>
\n<\/a> and <\/span>
\n BIRD<\/b>
\n<\/a>. Moreover, such shallow tricks and insults to the intelligence of Bulgarian citizens further erode the already low trust in the prosecution, which has been gravitating below 10% for years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a list of some of the loudest files of great public interest that the prosecution is hiding:<\/p>\n