Lawyer Mincho Spasov to FACTI: Currently, Petyo Evroto has a clean criminal record and can even run for chief prosecutor

The Sofia City Court found former investigator Petyo Petrov, nicknamed Evroto, guilty of preparing false documents and imposed an administrative penalty (fine) of 2,556 euros on him. The verdict is subject to appeal and protest. In addition, the court canceled his permanent arrest and withdrew his European arrest warrant. Petyo Petrov was charged with document fraud on a particularly large scale. The case against him, known as the “Eight Dwarfs“, is being heard in absentia, as he has been wanted for 3 years with a European arrest warrant. What kind of court case is “Eight Dwarfs“… Lawyer Mincho Spasov, who was a party to the case, spoke to FACTI because he represents Proletina Zlatanova.

- Mr. Spasov, after yesterday's verdict against Petyo Petrov – Pepi Euroto, in which the court found him guilty, but only imposed a fine of 2,556 euros on him and even canceled the European arrest warrant, what signal does this send to society and to people who expect justice in the “Eight Dwarfs“ case?
- The signal is that the Bulgarian justice system is in a state of collapse.

- What happened?
- The prosecutor's office itself is to blame. It tried, like Baron Munchausen, to get itself out of the swamp. Because the main defendants who actually should have been investigated were the prosecutors and investigators who worked on the case, who violated their official duties. But prosecutor Juliana Hristova from the Appellate Prosecutor's Office referred to Article 132 of the Constitution and decided that magistrates have immunity. However, this text was not read to the end. Because Article 132 of the Constitution states that “… magistrates are not liable unless they have committed a crime“. And this is precisely what is at stake here - they have committed a violation.

- The prosecutor's office requested 14 years in prison for Pepi Evroto, and the court effectively released him from criminal liability in exchange for an administrative sanction. How do you explain this huge gap between the indictment and the court's decision?
- The prosecutor's office requested 14 years in prison for Petyo Petrov - Evroto, but the causal link in the case was broken, and so the court imposed an administrative sanction on him. What's more - this punishment for Petyo Petrov is not included in his criminal record. That is, at the moment Petyo Evroto has a clean criminal record and can easily run for the position of chief prosecutor. I twice requested the prosecutor's recusal because he behaved more like Petyo Evroto's defender than like an accuser. Petrov was convicted only as an instigator under an administrative text, and on the main charge - for misappropriation of funds through document fraud - he was acquitted. It was here that the prosecution severed the logical connection between Petyo Petrov - Evroto and the disappearance of the gold. This happened after the charges were dropped by prosecutors Deyanov, Peychinov and Lyubena Petrova, Petyo Petrov's ex-wife. Thus, the path to finding true responsibility in the "Eight Dwarfs" case was effectively closed.

- The court's decision does not mention the missing gold at all, which was a major part of the essence of the entire "Eight Dwarfs" case. The gold simply evaporated from the case. Is that how it turns out …
- That's right. Apparently we saw a new property of gold - evaporating. (Smiles) Thus, the logical connection between Petyo Petrov - the Euro and the seizure of the gold was broken. And as the only evidence of the existence of the gold, only Marian Marinov remained - the brother of the former Interior Minister Mladen Marinov, who physically took the gold from the prosecutor's office and took it in an unknown direction.

- And the topic of the gold itself was not raised at all when the court decision was made…
- Apparently the gold evaporated. According to the court, the last person who saw it was the driver who loaded it into the car - Marian Marinov. But his name practically does not appear in the case. This is because he was neither questioned nor criminal proceedings were initiated against him.

- And so we came to an administrative sanction of a fine…
- The acquittal on the more serious charge came because the prosecution severed the causal link between Petyo Petrov and the prosecutors who participated in this entire scheme. This link was missing from the indictment. Extremely serious procedural violations were committed. Prosecutor Juliana Hristova from the Appellate Prosecutor's Office was obviously ashamed of the decree that released prosecutors Deyanov and Peychinov from liability, because this decree was not even served on us as victims. And the court made a huge mistake by assuming that we were notified only because the document was present in the case materials. We are talking about a case of 140 volumes. There is no way to expect that upon familiarizing yourself with the materials you will find every key document and react immediately. In order for the appeal period to begin, one act, one decision must actually be served.

- Will there be an appeal from you or from the other affected parties. Will the case of the “Eight Dwarfs“ continue in the next instance?
- In the next 14 days it will become clear whether there will be an appeal. (editor's note – date referred to May 21) This depends on the decisions of the victims – Proletina Zlatanova, whom I represent as the affected party, Yavor Zlatarov – as the affected party, as well as the prosecutor's office itself, which can also protest the verdict.

- Arrest warrant lifted, search warrant lifted? What does this mean for Petyo Petrov?
- In reality, now Petyo Petrov – Euro is a free man. There is no European arrest warrant, no detention order and he can walk the streets of Sofia in peace. All that remains is to welcome him at the airport with a bouquet of flowers, as we welcomed Dara after Eurovision. This follows from the administrative fine imposed on him by the court.

- During the case, you mentioned several times that Petyo Petrov may have two passports, considering the time when he was an active investigator. What can you say about this now?
- I made an official inquiry to the Directorate of “Bulgarian Identity Documents“ whether Petyo Petrov was issued two passports. The answer was that such information is not stored. This is the official response of the state, as absurd as it may sound.