Bulgarian prosecutors to probe Spanish media allegations against PM Borissov
Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s Office has decided on its own initiative to investigate the allegations against Prime Minister Boiko Borissov made in Spanish newspaper el Periodico, a statement on February 24 said.
Borissov will be questioned in the course of the investigation.
The allegations were made by el Periodico on February 21, in an article headlined “A money laundering investigation in Barcelona points to the Prime Minister of Bulgaria”.
Official
information will be requested from the Spanish authorities, the
Prosecutor’s Office said.
“During the inspection,
explanations will be removed from all the persons mentioned in the
article, as well as documentation for their alleged transactions.”
Over three pages, el Periodico detailed allegations involving a house and business in Barcelona, and regarding Borislava Yovcheva and her father, and two companies said to have received more than five million euro since 2013 from “non-Spanish natural persons”.
The report alleged that Yovcheva’s “possible relationship with Borissov is being carefully examined.”
On February 21, Spanish police confirmed that they were investigating Borissov but said that until the investigation is concluded, they could not give further details, news website Sega reported.
The same day that the allegations were published, Borissov denied them.
“I’ll say for the hundredth time that I have neither a house nor properties there. I last went there when I was [Sofia] mayor, maybe 15 years ago. It is not my money, I have nothing to do with those companies. I have not met the people mentioned for 10, 15 or 20 years. So far no office, authority, prosecution office or police service has contacted me to ask if this is true,” he told journalists while attending a European Council meeting in Barcelona.
