Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov after being released from 24-hour police detention in Sofia, March 18, 2022. MILENA STOIKOVA / AP
A spectacular arrest in front of cameras across the country, before being released as a humiliation for the Bulgarian authorities… On the evening of Friday, March 18, the sulphurous former Bulgarian conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was released from custody in less than twenty to four hours. Facing corruption scandals throughout his tenure from 2009 to 2021, he was arrested the day before at his home in the Sofia suburbs in a spectacular police operation.
Also on Friday, his former finance minister, Vladislav Goranov, and head of press relations, Sevdelina Arnaudova, were released without any charges.
“Absolute sabotage” by the prosecution
“They brought us back to communism,” Borisov, 62, said as he walked out of custody to applause from his supporters after the Sofia prosecutor’s office refused to open an investigation against him based on information provided by the police. They “did not contain sufficient evidence to suggest that any of these three people committed a crime,” the prosecution representative acquitted. The decision was immediately criticized by the current prime minister, anti-corruption centrist Kirill Petkov, who called an overnight press conference to denounce the “absolute sabotage” of Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor, Ivan Geshev. For several months Mr. Petkov has been demanding the resignation of this magistrate close to Mr. Borisov, accusing him of defending the old regime.
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After legislative elections in November 2021, Mr. Petkov actually succeeded in toppling Mr. Borisov, promising to clean up this corruption-riddled country and awaken a notoriously impotent judiciary. “No one is above the law,” the prime minister celebrated too hastily during arrests and searches Thursday night. According to information released by the government, Mr. Borisov’s arrest was justified on suspicion of extortion in the context of charges brought by ousted oligarch Vasily Boikov. Now on the run in Dubai, this former national lottery owner and long-time first fortune in Bulgaria claims to have paid more than 30 million euros in bribes to Mr. Borisov’s party.
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But in order to achieve its goal, the current government seems to have chosen a legally adventurous path. The Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office was indeed carefully kept from participating in the investigation, which was initiated by the police under the exclusive control of the Ministry of the Interior. However, in this context and in accordance with Bulgarian law, Mr. Borisov could only be held in police custody for a period of twenty-four hours. Finally, on Friday afternoon, the captured Sofia prosecutor’s office found that the mere accusations of the oligarch Vasil Boikov, himself the subject of a trial, were not enough to bring the former prime minister to trial. Mr. Borisov’s lawyer complained that he had very little detail on the merits of the charges.
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