Specialized Criminal Court Didn’t Issue Permission to Wiretap PM Stefan Yanev

The Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) said on Tuesday that it has not issued a permission to use special intelligence means (SIM) on incumbent caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev, nor on politicians mentioned by the media.

Last week, Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Atanas Atanassov said that 32 political figures were being wiretapped illegally since the start of this year, including during the campaign for the April 4 parliamentary elections. Caretaker Interior Minister
Boyko Rashkov confirmed later that he has received information about such wiretapping. The prosecuting magistracy acted on its own initiative, while the national bureau in charge of overseeing the use of special surveillance means will conduct
probes at the Interior Ministry's structures and the State Agency for National Security to establish whether violations had
been committed in the use of special intelligence means.

The Specialized Criminal Court said that an internal probe was conducted on the occasion of "the insinuations made in the
public domain" that the Court had allegedly issued permission to use SIM on politically engaged figures.

The Court noted that the annual probes conducted by the SIM control bureau have not established any violations concerning SIM authorization.