Prosecuting Magistracy Reacts to  Speculations About Biased Check  into Protest Network Activists

Sofia, February 27 (BTA) - The prosecuting magistracy Friday
circulated a detailed statement in which it denies the
speculations in some media that it is carrying out a biased
check into four activists of Protest Network, an informal
organization formed during the anti-government protests in 2013.
The prosecution's check caused a negative reaction by Protest
Network and comments from the embassies of the US and France in
Bulgaria.

In its statement, the prosecution office explains that on
December 2, 2014, the Prosecutor General received an alert from
Nedyalko Yordanov, owner of the PIK news agency, claiming that
four Protest Network activists - Asen Genov, Antoaneta Tsoneva,
Nikolay Staykov and Konstantin Pavlov - carry out an activity
which requires considerable funding, therefore a check should be
conducted into their incomes, the sources of these incomes,
whether these have been duly declared and whether the due taxes
have been paid. Yordanov's alert lists non-profit organizations
in which the four activists are involved and which receive
funding from the Open Society Institute, the Trust for Civil
Society in Central and Eastern Europe, and the America for
Bulgaria Foundation. Yordanov asks whether the activists have
received such resources as incomes.

The prosecution office further explains that Yordanov's alert
was referred to the competent Sofia City Prosecutor's Office
where a prosecutorial file was opened and entrusted through
random allocation on prosecutor Boryana Betsova. Upon
establishing that the data are not sufficient for pre-trial
proceedings and that there is no need of urgent investigative
actions, Betsova on December 11 entrusted the Criminal Police
with the check, which is still being carried out.

Having listed these facts, the prosecuting magistracy's
statement makes several points.

Firstly, the check does not concern: nongovernmental
organizations or other legal persons, including the America for
Bulgaria Foundation and the Open Society Institute; the grants
which these foundations give to nongovernmental organizations or
media so as to support the development of civil society and
media freedom; the legal persons receiving such grants. The
check concerns only the natural persons Asen Genov, Antoaneta
Tsoneva, Nikolay Staykov and Konstantin Pavlov, and covers the
claims of Nedyalko Yordanov regarding the sources and amount of
their incomes.

Secondly, a check under Article 145 of the Judicial System Act
can be carried out following every alert received by the
prosecuting magistracy and this is a legal obligation of the
prosecution office. To this moment, persons describing
themselves as Protest Network activists have sent to the
prosecuting magistracy, including to the Prosecutor General,
many signals containing claims about committed crimes. Checks
have been launched following all of these alerts. There are no
grounds to assume that the senders of the alerts, including the
above-mentioned four persons, have an immunity when someone has
sent an alert against them. The check following every alert
received by the prosecuting magistracy is neither an
investigation nor a form of penal repression, because it is
required by law as a way to establish whether an alert for
committed crimes is well-founded.

Thirdly, the prosecution office fully shares the position of the
US Embassy expressed on the social networks. This position
expresses the confidence that all checks will be carried out
professionally, in full conformity with the applicable
provisions of the Bulgarian legislation and with respect for
civil rights and the freedom of speech. The Prosecutor General
has decreed that the acts with which the supervising prosecutor
passes judgment upon the alert's merits, should be made public.

The prosecution office's statement further reads that
Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov wishes to reply to a question
published on a social network: "What kind of apple is Boryana
Betsova?" [a comment made by French Ambassador Xavier Lapeyre de
Cabanes on Twitter]. The Prosecutor General does not apprehend
the comparison of Bulgarian magistrates to a basket of apples,
or of a specific prosecutor to this fruit. Given the comparison
used [by the ambassador], it should be stated clearly and with
the same tone: Boryana Betsova is not a rotten apple. She is a
prosecutor who thoroughly and responsibly carries out her
professional obligations. The Prosecutor General firmly backs
every prosecutor and investigating magistrate who carries out
his or her legal obligations, and will react in the same way to
every attempt at ungrounded attacks against his colleagues, the
statement reads.