The Bureau of Criminal Records at the District Court in Stara Zagora sent the requested certificate of criminal record for Yanko Yankov—a municipal councilor from “Alternative for Citizens” (VMRO)—to the municipal administration on April 26 this year. It states that as of March 14, he has a valid sentence of 2 years of imprisonment with a 4-year probation period and a fine of 12,000 BGN. This was confirmed to “Za Istinata” by Delyan Ivanov, the secretary of the municipality, on the day the document was received in Stara Zagora. Nevertheless, his mandate has still not been terminated.
The request for Yanko Yankov’s criminal record was made only on April 22, which is 39 days after the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) issued a decision partially confirming his sentence, and “Za Istinata” reported on the matter as early as March 18 when the court published this decision on its official website. The undue delay from the administration was explained by the heavy workload of the municipality’s legal department and that Yankov was not among its priorities.
This response is perplexing given the high public interest in the case of the municipal councilor who offered money to voters to support the “Alternative for Citizens” list during the local elections in the fall of 2019.
The municipality is expected to send this document to the Municipal Election Commission in Stara Zagora at the beginning of the week, which is sufficient for the commission to convene and make a decision to terminate Yankov’s mandate.
Unfortunately, the passions surrounding this case are unlikely to conclude by the end of Holy Week, as the municipal administration is waiting to receive an official copy of the SCC decision regarding the case.
The municipality’s request letter was also sent last Friday—April 25. However, since Ms. Roza Georgieva, head of the cabinet of the chairman of the SCC, explained to “Za Istinata” that the cassation court sends documents for a case only to the appellate and first-instance courts, we submitted a written inquiry to the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, which filed the charges against Yankov in the Sofia City Court, to clarify who holds this obligation.
Prosecutor Hristo Krastsev referred to Article 30, Paragraph 5 of the Law on Local Self-Government and Local Administration, which states that the municipal administration establishes the circumstances regarding the criminal records of municipal councilors through the relevant documents issued by competent authorities, which are to be sent to the municipal election commission within three days of their issuance. Despite this, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office has inquired of the Sofia City Court (the first instance in the case) whether and when a certified copy of the SCC decision and the complete set of documents pertaining to the case were provided to the Municipality of Stara Zagora.
In the month and a half after the decision of the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC), Yanko Yankov continued to participate in two sessions of the Municipal Council and in the work of committees, one of which he chairs—the committee on municipal property—asking questions to the administration and receiving answers. Moreover, at a special press conference, Yankov claimed that he had been acquitted by the SCC and expected this to be confirmed at the upcoming meeting scheduled for May, which was set at his and his lawyer’s request.
In this regard, we sought the opinion of Laura Georgieva, a lawyer at the Anti-Corruption Fund (AKF). After reviewing the case, she commented that the SCC’s decision is very clear, and both the disposition and the reasoning are unequivocal. There is no doubt about the court’s will, which considered all objections discussed by the appellate court and took mitigating circumstances into account. Therefore, according to lawyer Georgieva, the disposition cannot be changed. She also pointed out the court’s remarks regarding Yankov’s claim about the unfairness of the punishment:
“The length of the imprisonment and the amount of the fine are close to the stipulated special minimum. The cumulative sanction corresponds to the clearly established preponderance of mitigating circumstances, and reducing it is unjustifiable, considering the serious aggravating circumstances, such as the number of individuals persuaded to cast their votes and Yankov’s troubled judicial past.”
The municipal councilor has a conviction from ten years ago, issued by the District Court in Stara Zagora and upheld by the Regional Court, for publicly defaming Ilian Iliev—a producer and host on one of the regional television stations—on social media while serving as the regional leader of Nikolay Barekov’s party, “Bulgaria without Censorship.”
The commission has established that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Yanko Yankov, in his capacity as a municipal councilor, submitted and supported decisions of the Municipal Council regarding the reduction of fees and the removal of interest for the period of the state of emergency for companies renting advertising and informational elements, thereby providing a benefit to his mother, who is the sole owner and manager of an advertising agency. Yankov has appealed the decision from the Commission for Counteracting Corruption and Forfeiting Illegally Acquired Property (KPKONPI) to the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC), which has not yet ruled.
Yanko Yankov’s public appearances, as well as his participation in the sessions of the Municipal Council and its committees, permitted by the chairwoman of the local parliament, Iveta Lazarova—who is also Yankov’s domestic partner—have provoked outrage among many of his fellow councilors.
Attorney Magdalena Ovcharova from thePP-DB sent an inquiry to the Central Election Commission (CEC) regarding the early termination of Yanko Yankov’s mandate. The “Vazrazhdane” party called for Lazarova’s resignation on March 20 this year and submitted a complaint to the Electoral Commission for the early termination of Yankov’s powers. During the March session, councilors from Kostadin Kostadinov’s party attempted to present a declaration for the resignation of the chairwoman of the Municipal Council as an emergency item on the meeting’s agenda, but they did not receive sufficient support from other groups. In the April session, the declaration was included in the agenda but was rejected during the vote.
The Municipal Council meeting on April 25 this year turned into a poorly directed theatrical performance, broadcast online by two regional televisions in Stara Zagora. Yanko Yankov listened to the municipal councilors from outside the room and later delivered a dramatic monologue portraying himself as an innocent victim of a judicial error (misunderstanding). The audience might have found it amusing if this were indeed theater. But it was an ugly reality.
Stefan Ankоv, the chairman of the legal committee of the Municipal Council in Stara Zagora, took on the role of Yanko Yankov’s advocate, attempting to present his conviction as unclear and not definitively resolved by the court. No one can provide an answer to the question of what motives and underlying reasons were at play. However, the suspicion that there is some unclear collusion between GERB and the convicted municipal councilor—who has been acting like the person dictating the agenda since the beginning of this term—remains. This suspicion was even heightened when GERB and the parties forming the current majority in the local parliament blocked the voting on the resignation of chairwoman Iveta Lazarova, submitted by “Vazrazhdane.” Legal experts expressed that there were no legal, only moral grounds for this request. This prompted Maria Dineva, who chaired the Municipal Council in the previous term, to ask Lazarova why she was enduring all of this instead of seeking a vote of confidence from her colleagues as the first among equals. However, there was no voting because a commission could not be formed to report the results of the secret ballot. As a result, tensions flared instead of subsiding, and it remains uncertain when and if the procedure will be continued or restarted at the next session.
