Asen Vassilev commented on the testimony of the former head of customs, Petya Bankova as a "pasquill, which aims to divert attention from the falsified elections,", BNT reported.
Kiril Petkov doubted their authenticity and assumed that Bankova was pressured to give these statements. According to Petkov, they were "incompetently written compromising material, which has a single purpose: to distract attention from the main question of which parties will be chosen in the parliament: Bulgaria or Peevski."
Before "Around the world and in our country" Petya Bankova's lawyer - Adelina Natina - confirmed the authenticity of the testimony and stated that she and her client decided alone and without pressure that Bankova should speak to the investigators. Lawyer Natina also specified that the explanations were given to an investigative inspector in the Anti-Corruption Commission on October 10.
Asen Vasilev said that he had read Petya Bankova's testimony published on various websites. He denied influencing the appointment and replacement of people at customs, as well as receiving commissions and money from smuggling.
"All this looks exactly like things that they write, type of "compositions from DANS", forged protocols,'' Vassilev said.
He added that it can be verified by documents that what Bankova said about the scanners at customs does not correspond to the truth.
"About the scanners in customs. There it became clear that we had placed an open order in my time. Many candidates have appeared for the order. After that, the Supreme Administrative Court canceled the order and that's the end of the "Denkov" cabinet.
Bankova's lawyer Adelina Natina confirmed that the distributed protocols of her client's interrogation are authentic.
"In my opinion, Mr. Vassilev interpreted the events quite helpfully. What Asen Vassilev says is true, however, there are some events that happen after VAS terminates the public procurement. After which Mrs. Bankova tells that Asen Vasilev made a decision with this company to enter into a contract for the purchase of these scanners," explained Adelina Natina, Petya Bankova's lawyer.
Natina says that Banks' claims were also confirmed by other evidence.
"Because all these meetings she attended in Asen Vassilev's personal conference room in the Ministry of Finance with representatives of the company in question, where the conversations took place.
BNT: Can Ms. Bankova's claims be confirmed by other evidence, apart from the claims of one defendant?
Adelina Natina: Oh, yes, yes. Absolutely. All these statements of Mrs. Bankova can be officially confirmed by the Ministry of Finance. Because all the meetings were held there. On the other hand, in Mrs. Bankova's office mail there are letters from Mr. Vassilev's office mail. A check will clear these things up very quickly.
The former finance minister found another discrepancy between Bankova's testimony and the facts.
"Apparently from "Simeonovo" something they didn't do their job well, is for some connection between finance and transport for the helicopters for HEMS, for the emergency aid.
According to Asen Vassilev, these helicopters were purchased by the Ministry of Health, not by the Ministry of Transport or Finance. And the public procurement was announced during the interim government of Galab Donev and ended with the same cabinet. Vassilev also rejected Bankova's claims about the Chinese trains, the order was not started at all because of a negative opinion of the European Commission.
"The other thing that can be seen in these testimonies is "I heard, I saw, someone else told me and I didn't believe these things, but for 6 months when I was in detention I believed them". This is the last paragraph in the testimony," he added.
The other co-chair of "Continuing the Change" Kiril Petkov admitted that after half a year behind bars, Bankova was pressured to speak. Lawyer Adelina Natina is adamant that no pressure was exerted.
"Everything was stated by Mrs. Bankova in front of me, personally. Voluntarily. I have submitted a request, there was no pressure.
BNT: Am I to understand that on the part of the investigative inspector in the KPK, at first there were no questions, he only accepted her explanations? And second, there was absolutely nothing to point in the direction she was talking?
Adelina Natina: Exactly. We took advantage of this right of ours. No one asked us questions or gave us directions. We would not allow this to happen with our colleague Rangelov (Petya Bankova's other lawyer, b.r.), of course.
Natina added that the explanations were given on October 10.
"At the moment, this is an absolutely targeted attack to divert attention from the biggest scandal in the country, which is the bought elections,", Asen Vassilev said for his part.
According to Kiril Petkov, the explanations of the former head of customs are "incompetently written kompromat, which aims to divert attention from the question of what the parties will choose in the parliament, "Bulgaria or Peevski?".
Source: bntnews.bg