Balgarianovinite.com Thirty prosecutorial case files have been opened against MP candidates for election-related offences, caretaker Interior Minister Emil Dechev said here Wednesday. He was speaking at a news conference in the Council of Ministers’ headquarters, held jointly with Prime Minister Andrey Gurov and Justice Minister Andrey Yankulov. “It is the prosecution service’s move now and they should decide whether these people should be charged and stripped of immunity,” said Dechev.
The Prime Minister said that “the battle for fair elections is not for one institution to fight, it is a team play”. “The first step is made by citizens when they file an alert and refuse to be part of vicious schemes. The second step is made by the Interior Ministry which investigates, collects evidence and detains offenders. The third step is for the prosecutors. It is the decisive one, where a decision is made if justice will prevail.”
Justice Minister Yankulov said that the prosecution service “has questions to answer about the immunity of MP candidates”.
He suggested that the prosecution’s failure to take action regarding the immunities of parliamentary candidates and other individuals with immunity “might be due to concerns within the prosecution’s leadership about its own legitimacy, given that it is the Prosecutor General who is responsible for initiating such responses”.
Yankulov has been one of the most vocal critics of acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, arguing that he has long overstayed the six-month tenure for holders of this office on an interim basis, as set out in the Judicial System Act.
Sarafov and the vast majority of the prosecutors’ community insist that the six-month rule was adopted after Sarafov became acting Prosecutor General and therefore does not apply to him.
On Wednesday, he said: “From my Day One at the Justice Ministry, I have been raising the question about the legitimacy of the prosecution service [leadership]. So far, my institutional actions for solving this problem are not met with the needed response in the Supreme Judicial Council and the Prosecutors Chamber,” Yankulov said.
Police chiefs under pressure
The Interior Minister also described what he called “a troubling case” in the Plovdiv Regional Directorate of the Interior, where he said police has achieved their most significant success to date in combatting vote buying – seizing EUR 90,000 which is the largest amount of money linked to vote-buying so far. In the very same week, the local police director was summoned and charged as a suspect. “This concerns us. We expect to work in cooperation with the prosecution service in order to achieve strong results in countering election-related crime,” the minister added.
He also pointed to another case involving the deputy director of the Pazardzhik police directorate, who was removed from office at first instance, with his case due to be reviewed on appeal on April 16.
According to Dechev, such developments are complicating the Interior Ministry’s work.
He noted that the Interior Ministry has shown significantly increased activity in recent weeks in countering crimes against citizens’ political rights, particularly those linked to the electoral process—activity several times higher than during the October 2024 elections.
He reported an increase by several fold in tipoffs of electoral crimes, pre-trial proceedings, arrests, and formal warnings, stressing that the Ministry is acting against all levels of organized vote-buying networks. 30 Prosecutorial Case Files Opened against MP Candidates, It Is Prosecutors’ Turn to Act, Government Says 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-04-15 17:09:00 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law
