The mayor of Boychinovtsi Svetlin Sreteniev and the deputy mayor of the municipality Tanya Petrova were detained last night by a police order for 24 hours, the spokesperson for the Montana district prosecutor's office, prosecutor Lili Ilieva, told BTA.
The working qualification of the investigation is a crime in office under Article 282 of the Criminal Code. So far, the Montana prosecutor's office has not received a request from the police for permanent detention, but this could happen by the end of the day, prosecutor Ilieva said. If a request is made, the supervising prosecutor for the investigation, Rosen Petkov, who is the district prosecutor of Montana, will decide whether to impose a 72-hour detention measure and request a permanent detention measure from the court.
Currently, procedural and investigative actions are being carried out in the case. The Directorate of the Investigation of the Criminal Investigation Department, the Directorate of the Investigation of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Directorate of the Investigation of the Criminal Investigation Department are involved in the investigation, prosecutor Ilieva specified.
Throughout the day yesterday, the municipal administration building in Boychinovtsi was blocked by police, gendarmerie and police and anti-corruption officers from Sofia, who were checking documents and searching offices. Mayor Svetlin Sreteniev was seen leaving the building for a short while, accompanied by uniformed and plainclothes police officers, with whom they together examined documents in cars in the municipality's garage behind the building. The inspection then continued in the building until late in the evening.
For two years, publications in some media outlets have alleged that Mayor Svetlin Sreteniev diverted European funds for road repairs, that he bought votes in the elections, etc. During the election campaign for the local elections in the fall of last year, Sreteniev showed documents from an investigation by the Bulgarian prosecutor's office, according to which an inspection of the work of the municipal administration in Boychinovtsi and its activities had not found anything wrong and no charges had been filed. The mayor of Boychinovtsi claimed that this was a malicious campaign against him in some media outlets.
Yesterday and today, the phones of Svetlin Sreteniev and Tanya Petrova were turned off and they were not available for comment.