"I have not been charged and it would be ridiculous if I had one. The only thing I can say is that back in the summer of 2022, I gave explanations to the National Agency for the Control of Protected Areas in connection with the framework agreement for partnership with the "National Agency for the Control of Protected Areas" (NACPZT)". This was stated by the former Minister of Environment and Waters Borislav Sandov to BNT about the six-person murder in the "Petrohan-Okolchitsa" case, quoted by news.bg.
Sandov explained that attempts are being made to politicize the topic. "I don't know why this brutal attack against me, like Slavi Trifonov, who attacks me with absolutely false statements. He is trying to shift the whole case towards politicization. There is also a context - early parliamentary elections and a caretaker government are coming up," the former Minister of Environment commented.
He pointed out that all inspections at the Ministry of Environment and Water claim that the ministry has not violated the law in any way.
"Nobody recommended the NACPZT to me. At the third meeting, we signed an agreement on environmental protection and it has a seal. Representatives of this NGO have not come armed to me. There is always a representative of the NSO next to the minister and he would not allow anyone to come to a meeting with me, armed. These stories are again of the "one woman said" type, Sandov emphasized.
He specified that he once visited the former "Petrohan" hut to make sure that the base was in a condition that it was possible to live there. Sandov saw equipment related to diving and equipment for an all-terrain jeep.
"I was there for 10 minutes and I didn't have time to walk around the rooms. I only saw one of the victims once, but I thought he was Ivaylo Kalushev's son. We drank tea on the veranda and commented on the biodiversity and the new protected areas there. I have visited the hut twice more as a family to escape the heat in 2023 and 2024. There was no obstacle to getting to the place", shared Borislav Sandov.
He added that he had a joint action with the NACPZ when the MRF tried to push through an amendment to the Forestry Act, when they also got involved.
"The disgust that occurs towards people who are close to the victims is indecent when it comes from state authorities with an expired term", said Borislav Sandov. And he assured that there was no registered irregularity at the NACPZ.
Borislav Sandov also shared that he did not maintain a close relationship and was not friends with Ivaylo Kalushev. He said he felt personally disgusted that institutional and political responsibility was being shifted to him.