Asen Vassilev said he did not know Stefan Dimitrov, and only Petya Bankova. This was reported by BTA.
During the meeting earlier, the chairman of the State Agency "National Security" Plamen Tonchev said that there was only one communication established between the Minister of Finance (Asen Vassilev) and Stefan Dimitrov, which was about the appointment of Nedan Hadjiev as the director of the Regional Directorate (OD) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – Haskovo.
I don't think that anyone is attacking Asen Vassilev, I think that what we are witnessing is a comparatively "poor political farce", Vassilev said.
He pointed out that as deputy director of the “Customs” Petya Bankova has worked "extremely well with foreign partners". Vassilev explained that at that time Bankova was responsible for having scanners at the "Captain Andreevo" border crossing, as well as having foreign customs officers.
Foreign customs officers are already there – from the USA, they are expected to come from England this month, you know that we have talks that took place at the level of Prime Minister with Emmanuel Macron, he commented. According to him, she led foreign customs officers along the border and was the main link with foreign customs services. It was logical, since this is the policy we want to pursue, that she should be appointed head of the "Customs" Agency, after the merger of the agency and the departure of Pavel Tonev to the Ministry of Finance.
There is an investigation, there is also a court, they must establish the facts, commented Asen Vasilev. He was adamant that what they saw from the point of view of Bankova's professionalism - were record seized amounts of drugs, sums at the border and record seized shipments of cigarettes.
Vasilev pointed out that the development of DANS started during the time of the official cabinet and defined the operation of this channel for two years as scandalous. According to him, the logical question is who then patronized this channel.
I had a conversation with the Minister of the Interior about Nedan Hadjiev, in view of the fact that when he was the head of the OD of the Ministry of the Interior, the lowest level of vote-buying was the lowest, Vassilev explained. The conversation was held a month before the local elections in Haskovo to reduce the bought vote in the context of the fact that then 20 heads of regional directorates changed.
Vasilev also commented on the proposals to replace Foreign Minister Stefan Dimitrov and Agriculture Minister Kiril Vatev and described this as unprecedented. "You should ask the prime minister and, accordingly, the president, who should issue the new decrees, what necessitates these changes,", Asen Vassilev also said.