Former Minister of Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov commented on "120 Minutes" the political consequences of flight data, discrepancies between institutional reports and the application of the PNR system used to analyze passenger data.
Tsvetanov emphasizes that the information from the PNR is a main source for checking passenger movements: "For me, this is the reliable information that was presented by Minister Demerdzhiev, there can be no mistake about the passengers.“
He adds that the system allows for the restoration of the real picture through passenger manifests. “When all passenger processing is completed, a passenger manifest is prepared, which is available to the PNR system.“
According to him, this is what allows for “cross-checks“ and establishing the factual circumstances surrounding the flights.
Regarding the differences between data from the Border Police and the PNR system, Tsvetanov stated:
„The Border Police report shows that Desislava Atanasova is flying with Turkish Airline, but there is no ability to perform an automatic check in the PNR“, Tsvetanov said, emphasizing the different degree of reliability between the systems and the possibility of incompleteness of one report.
He presented a hypothesis regarding the method of boarding a private flight:
„In all likelihood, someone took Desislava Atanasova out through a service entrance and put her on Delyan Peevski's private plane“, Tsvetanov said, specifying that this is a conclusion based on the lack of a match in the manifests.
„I assume, because there is no way she could not appear in the passenger manifesto.“
Tsvetan Tsvetanov links the analysis of the trips to potential investigations into economic influence.
„How many of them won public contracts and whether there was a political configuration that helped this happen“, he said, adding:
„We can conclude that there was lobbying and seeking economic benefits at the expense of the public interest.“
Tsvetan Tsvetanov defines the case as a serious political blow.
„This is severe reputational damage, especially for GERB“, Tsvetanov said, criticizing the party's political consistency.
„GERB is departing from its principled position that it declared before“, he said.