“The first season” of “Yaneva Gate”, which ended Thursday with the refusal of President Plevneliev to appoint an independent commission to investigate the case, left more questions than answers.

Despite drastic evidence of violations of the constitutional separation of powers, abuse of office, trading influence and blatant breaches of the Code of Ethics of magistrates, the President passed the ball to the institutions that are totally disgraced by the scandal. According to him, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and the prosecution have the capacity to investigate the affair, which means that the investigators and the investigated will be the same persons.

Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov, on his part, excelled as a defense lawyer of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. According to Ivanov, someone tried to involve the Prime Minister in the scandal to divert the attention from the SJC.

Apparently Ivanov has in mind some higher powers that in February this year put in the mouth of Yaneva a story in the first person about how Borisov played “cat and mouse” with her: at first exerted tough pressure on Prosecutor General Sotir  Tsatsarov to “finish” her; then called “his man” in the SJC Dimitar ( Mitko) Uzunov, asking him to comfort her; sent with the same goal a trusted person to talk to the head of the Ethics Commission Yasen Todorov; communicated directly with Yaneva on Viber, telling her that the “weather will be fine”, and finally again pressured “savagely” the Prosecutor General to “finish” her.

We will skip comments on the offer for a walk in the park because what consenting adults do in their spare time is not our business.

To sweeten the bitter finale of the first season, instead of epilogue, we decided to publish a recording; something like making out – short, but meaningful.

Vladimira Yaneva – VYA

Unidentified Man – M

Rumyana Chenalova – RCH

VYA: That is debatable.

M: So the one who was on Friday was not Boreto Sarafov (Borislav Sarafov – Deputy Chief Prosecutor – editor’s note), but Boyko Rashkov (Chief of the National Bureau for Control on Special Surveillance Devices – editor’s note), I confused the names.

Boyko Rashkov will submit it on Monday.

RCH: Where will he submit it? In Brussels?

M: Cuz they offered me if I wanted to look at it and for us to decide what not to submit and what to submit?

VYA: Do you think that they will honor their commitment?

M: The only thing they asked me was the withdrawal of the one in the case of Ivo Datchev.

RCH: You know something is very murky for me. So first, Boyko sends you these people and so on.

Then the Chief Prosecutor tells you that there is no problem.

Deliyan talked to both of them. And suddenly this sensation pops up.

Who is this person who may tip the scale in such manner, do you know?

VYA: Well, the Chief Prosecutor at our meeting on Friday told me that on Wednesday…

M: That it was uncontrollable.

VYA: Boyko summoned him and told him to finish me.

This is what the Chief Prosecutor told me.

Then, another thing, he tells Joro Kolev (Georgi Kolev, President of the Supreme Administrative Court – editor’s note): “If the pressure from Boyko becomes very strong, I will have no other choice, but to institute proceedings against her and ask for her removal.”

VYA: You know very well that Joro and Boyko know each other and that Joro can always ask Boyko.

With this difference, however, Joro called Boyko, Boyko did not answer the phone.

M: Beauty.

VYA: Joro says: “I called him several times; he did not pick up.”

The recording, lasting 1 min and 45 seconds, shows that the third person in the conversation (the Man) is someone very important. His identity was not disclosed nor by Yaneva or Chenalova or through our efforts to match the voice with any known key players in the judiciary.

The person in question apparently has the power to review and even censor reports submitted to institutions in Brussels “cuz they offered me if I wanted to look at it and for us to decide what not to submit and what to submit”. Those who “offered” have made a “commitment” (in the words of Yaneva), and the only thing they asked was “the withdrawal of the one in the case of Ivo Datchev” (Datchev is a judge from the Sofia City Court, which presides the cases against the collapsed Corporate Commercial Bank, CCB) .

While Yaneva and the man discuss such important institutional issues, Chenalova interferes in the conversation to say that all this was “very murky” for her. Why after Boyko sent these people to Yaneva and so on, and then the Chief Prosecutor told her that there was no problem and after

*Deliyan talked to both of them

suddenly this sensation popped up?

Chenalova wonders who is this man who is stronger than Boyko and Tsatsarov and even Delyan. Who “could tip the balance”?

The sequel is known. Yaneva explains that the Prosecutor General and Georgi Kolev told her how Boyko ordered “to finish her”. The man prompts at some point that “**Tsetso is pressuring hard”. Yaneva agrees “100%”.

So, who is the said “Delyan” who spoke with the Prime Minister and the Prosecutor General about Yaneva’s fate? Is he the same one who visited “Tsetso” 40 times in the Interior Ministry, while one of the meetings was also attended by the Prosecutor General?

Approached for comment by phone, Rumyana Chenalova was surprised to hear herself uttering that name. She wished to hear the recording first. After doing so, she fell silent and did not respond to subsequent queries.

#Who is “Deliyan”? This is another question that must be answered by the independent judiciary represented by the SJC and the prosecution, who, according to President Plevneliev, are the “competent authorities that have the necessary tools to find the objective truth”.

That very same President who in the summer of 2013 publicly lifted his confidence from the government “Oresharski” because it appointed a “Delyan” as Head of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) and indignant citizenship took to the streets.

Two years later, “Delyan” is talking again with the Prime Minister and the Prosecutor General, but there is no longer civil unrest, there is no president!

There is “finishing”, “conspiracy”, guilty silence from the yesterday’s fighters against this same “Delyan” whose name had become synonymous with the Mafia.

*Delyan Peevski is a controversial lawmaker and media mogul, whose name became the symbol of the backstage rule in Bulgaria. In June 2013, his brief and quickly-recalled appointment as Chief of the National Security Agency (DANS) sparked large and long-lasting anti-government protest rallies.

**Tsetso is the nickname of former Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, still Deputy Chairman of Borisov’s ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB) and GERB MP.

***

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