Former environment minister Borislav Sandov has been charged with abuse of power, Sofia city prosecutors said. Prosecutor Nikolay Nikolaev, the office's spokesman, gave details. Sandov has signed a pledge not to leave the country.
The case dates back to February 8, 2022, when Sandov signed an agreement with the National Agency for Control of Protected Territories (NAKZT). Under the deal, Nikolaev said, the minister handed the group state powers, including control functions.
Prosecutors say this benefited the organization: only the group and people it named got unlimited access to the land above the Petrohan hut.
Prosecutors say this caused real harm to the public and the state. Access was restricted, and it hurt the state's standing, they said. State powers, they added, cannot be handed to private groups.
Prosecutors have been working the case since 2022. Speaking to reporters, Sandov said that as minister he met NAKZT representative Ivaylo Ivanov three times at the ministry, and visited the Petrohan hut three more times after leaving the post.
His lawyer, Alexander Kashamov, called the charge absurd and said the NGO was never given powers outside the law. The defense let the charge go ahead despite what it called a faulty summons, so as not to hold up the investigation.
"We don't know why the charge is coming now. We had no idea this case even existed," Kashamov said.
The investigator took over the case in April, the lawyer said. In March, Sandov was questioned over killings near the Petrohan hut. Kashamov pointed out that questioning came before the parliamentary election, while this latest step comes ahead of the presidential vote.
Sandov said the framework agreement did not hand over control functions, did not create or limit any rights, and led to no benefits or wrongdoing. Nothing ever came of the deal signed with NAKZT, he said — it was only meant to lay groundwork, with no rights or duties attached.
The former minister added that the law does not require checks on such organizations in advance, but many were carried out anyway, and none found any violations. Money, he said, was never part of it.
"The state needs to build on how it protects the environment," Sandov said, adding that this happens through work with institutions and with people through non-government groups.
A second pre-trial case is looking into the funding and finances of the organization that runs the Petrohan hut. Investigators have found bank accounts held in Bulgaria by people linked to the group, as well as a foreign account in the United States.