Parliament will hold an emergency sitting on 13 October at 9:00 am to hear prison service chiefs on the pardon of Ognyan Atanasov, known as the "Petrich Escobar". The plan is listed on the parliament's website. See our earlier report: DB wants parliament hearing over pardon of "Petrich Escobar".
Parliament speaker Mihaela Dotsova has called the sitting. "We Continue the Change" tabled the request for the hearing. MPs will hear chief commissioner Ivaylo Yordanov, head of the Chief Directorate for the Execution of Sentences. Senior commissioner Svetoslav Penov, head of Sofia prison. And Vasil Kirilov, a former head of the prison who held the post from November to December 2022.
The hearing will look at how the medical findings and reports on Atanasov's behaviour were drawn up, checked and submitted for his pardon, and what checks were made in the case. The president pardoned him by decree on 5 December 2022.
Last week parliament rejected a proposal by "Democratic Bulgaria" for another hearing on the same case. The coalition wanted to question the head of the Chief Directorate for the Execution of Sentences, the chairman of the State Agency for National Security (DANS), the chief secretary of the Interior Ministry, the head of the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (GDBOP) and the head of the specialised hospital for active treatment at Sofia prison. It wanted them to explain the circumstances around the documents used for the pardon.