Petyo Petrov, known as Petyo the Euro, currently does not have a valid issued European arrest warrant, which is grounds for his search and detention in the Schengen information system and through Interpol channels. This became clear a few days ago, after Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Lyubomir Yosifov was heard in parliament. He explained that in December 2023, by a decision of the Sofia City Court, Petrov was removed from Interpol's search with a so-called red notice and the European arrest warrant for him was withdrawn. The prosecution wants to bring Petyo Evroto to court for document fraud on a particularly large scale in the “Eight Dwarfs“ case. According to the indictment, with forged documents, the former investigator received gold coins and bars worth over 1.3 million leva, owned by Iliya and Yavor Zlatanovi. Where is the saga heading… Andrey Yankulov, senior legal expert at the Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF), spoke to FACTI.
- Mr. Yankulov, the Sofia City Court (SCC) denied the claims of the Ministry of Interior that it had removed former investigator Petyo Petrov - Evroto from the Interpol wanted list. Earlier, Deputy Minister of Interior Lyubomir Yosifov said that Petrov had been removed from the wanted list. Who to believe…
- The dispute between the institutions in absentia is not whether Petrov was “removed from the search“, which is a fact, but who is competent to “upload“ and “remove“. Technically, this is done by the Ministry of Interior, but when the search is in connection with criminal proceedings, the grounds for it are contained in an act of a judicial authority. In the present case, at the moment, there is no European arrest warrant (EAW) issued for Petrov, which is the basis for his international search for the purpose of detention in the Schengen Information System and the Interpol channel. The EAW for the pre-trial phase of the criminal proceedings is issued by the prosecutor after permission from the court, and for the judicial – by the court.
- If we accept the thesis of Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Lyubomir Yosifov that Petrov is wanted only for establishing an address, what does that mean?
- This is not a thesis, but a fact. The Ministry of Internal Affairs knows exactly what a person is wanted for, because its employees operate the relevant systems - the Schengen Information System and the Interpol channel. This measure means that if he is located on the territory of a foreign country,
Petrov will not be detained, but the Bulgarian authorities will only be provided with information about his whereabouts and address.
And he will not be detained because, as I have already said, no European arrest warrant has been issued.
- Who is doing/not doing their job in this entire investigation…
- The prosecutor's office is the master of what and how is investigated and who, when, for what, based on what evidence can be accused. The investigation that is being targeted in this case concerns a small element of the entire saga of the “Eight Dwarfs“ – Petyo Petrov's participation in the “disappearance“ of a large amount of gold and cash seized as material evidence in criminal proceedings of the now closed Specialized Prosecutor's Office. But
„The Eight Dwarfs“ is a multi-layered case and contains much more information about many more crimes possibly committed by many more people
– in practice, the data is about a criminal network for corrupt influence on institutions, logically also with the participation of people from the institutions themselves. This is not being investigated or if it is being investigated, it is without visible results. Since the only accused, and in absentia, because he is not wanted, is Petyo Petrov, and only for the unlawful receipt of the material evidence in question, for which he misled the prosecutors from the Specialized Prosecutor's Office by using false documents.
- In December 2023, changes to the Extradition Act and the European Arrest Warrant entered into force in order to harmonize our domestic law with that of the EU. What are the new developments and how do they affect this investigation?
- The significant new development is that judicial review was introduced when a prosecutor issues a European arrest warrant for criminal prosecution. This was necessary because the Court of Justice of the EU found that our legislation does not comply with Union law, which requires a court to review the legality of issuing a European arrest warrant when this is done by a prosecutor, not a court.
In the present case, the court initially refused the prosecutor's office permission to issue a European arrest warrant for Petrov, but for what reasons - it is unknown.
Subsequently, in the course of the investigation, the prosecutor changed the crime for which Petrov was accused, which would have required the issuance of a new European arrest warrant, i.e. a request for a court order again, but there is no evidence that this was done. That is, the prosecutor's office itself apparently gave up on an international search for Petrov with the aim of detaining him.
- The services claim that they have not stopped looking for Petrov, but they do not know where he is and have not familiarized themselves with the leaked archive. At the same time, the civil organization “Bulgarian Elves“ revealed that Petyo Euroto is in Greece, where his phone has been located… Is it difficult to locate a person from the services today…
- If Petyo Petrov is in Greece, the Bulgarian services cannot go there and arrest him, even if they know where he is. This would be within the competence of the Greek authorities alone, if they have grounds for it – and the grounds are, as already mentioned, a European arrest warrant requested by Bulgaria, which requests the arrest and extradition of the person to Bulgaria.
- Do you ever expect there to be a real trial in this case, or will things remain in such an unclear position, in which various institutions are just passing the ball to each other…
- In order for there to be a real trial, there must first be a real investigation that deals with all the numerous aspects of the “Eight Dwarfs“ case. So far, this does not seem to be happening and the more time passes, the less likely it becomes that it will ever be possible, even if there were some change in the situation at the top of the judiciary that would presuppose it. Proving the activities of such criminal networks by means of criminal proceedings is objectively a very difficult task, even if there were the will to do so. The case against Petyo Petrov for obtaining material evidence through document fraud, even if it ever goes to trial in his absence, will deal only with him as the sole defendant and with the sole crime he is accused of. The indictment itself is very difficult to defend as a legal construct, not least because it will require proving the error of the prosecutors from the Specialized Prosecutor's Office, deceived by the "evil genius" Petrov. And this, given the known circumstances of the case, will appear to be an impossible task.
- The deputies stopped the procedure for electing a chief prosecutor with changes to the law. Borislav Sarafov is already acting in office, but within the 6-month period, as the changes to the law already require? Will we see any changes in the prosecutor's office after this, or will things remain the same?
- Given the current state of the political system and the judiciary, changes in the prosecutor's office are very unlikely to be expected, regardless of who will be the temporary or permanent prosecutor general. In fact, there is nothing to prevent a new composition of the Supreme Judicial Council from electing Sarafov as its incumbent. And if the Constitutional Court is consulted, the ban on the current composition of the Supreme Judicial Council from electing a prosecutor general may also be lifted.