Villain! Villain! Smiling villain!
Where is my tile to write,
that someone can smile
and still be a villain!
At least in our country,
Denmark, this can happen!“
“Hamlet”, Shakespeare
The atrocities often become visible suddenly and too late – only when they have treacherously revived the past. When they have replaced the present with it in order to deprive of sense any effort to move forward. This was done on Sunday by the Bulgarian National Television with the interview of the former Attorney General Nikola Filchev.
„An authoritative university lecturer, former Attorney General … Nikola Filchev. Yes, this is Nikola Filchev.“ Thus, Georgi Lyubenov, host of the show „The Day Begins“, introduced his guest, who has appeared twice before the “Blitz” website in the last few weeks. Now, in order to continue his attack, he received the national air.
Filchev was invited less than a month after the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor’s Office Vasil Mikov was found dead in his appartment in the Sofia neighborhood „Mladost“. The version that the prosecutor’s office spread almost instantly was that Mikov shot himself with his legally possessed weapon.
Everything you need to know about: The election of new Attorney General (230)
Well, who was Mikov?
One of the few prosecutors who mustered the courage to oppose Filchev, who governed the state prosecution from 1999 to 2006.
The others who dared were the prosecutor from the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s Office Nikolay Kolev, who was shot dead in front of his home in 2002, and Nikolay Dzhambov, who committed suicide in his office in 2000. For Dzhambov Filchev ordered a wreath with the inscription “From the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria” and, according to testimonies of prosecutors, he censored the funeral speech.
In April 2000, a bottle of incendiary liquid was thrown in front of the office of Vasil Mikov’s wife, Aneta, a notary in Dobrich at the time. It may be just a coincidence, but it happened hours before Nikolai Dzhambov’s suicide. Only a month later, there was an explosion in front of Aneta Mikova’s office.
In 2010, the wife of the shot Nikolay Kolev said in an interview for BTV that Filchev had ordered to her husband the murder of Vasil Mikov. During his lifetime, Kolev himself announced that he had received an order to set fire to the car of Momchil Milev, a journalist from Capital, who at the time was covering the work of the judiciary system.
There were no questions to Filchev on these cases.
„Hello, professor! Good morning!“
– so began the conversation of Georgi Lyubenov. And then he helpfully handed to his guest one by one the apparently pre-arranged points of reference of the interview. All the while, in support of the spontaneous conversation, the former Attorney General passed a pack of printed sheets in his hands. And when he lost his thought he stared at the host to return it to him.
There was no one to remind the viewers neither of the boom of ordered killings at the time when Filchev was chief prosecutor, nor that „heroes“ like Taki, the Galevi Brothers, the Margins experienced their star moments then. All of them sank into obscurity during the time of Boris Velchev, and with the mandate of Sotir Tsatsarov their time for return came. The charges against them for ordered killings, money laundering and drug trafficking were cancelled with one and the same reason – „lack of evidence“.
„Good morning, Professor!“ – on Sunday the topic was different. That is why Georgi Lyubenov did not die of shame that he took part in the show of the man who in 2006, while he was covered in the Bulgarian embassy in Kazakhstan, swore a journalist from BTA on the phone. The recording of the conversation, broadcast on national radio, reads like this: „Do you understand wha’ I’m telling you, or you are with limited capabilities? And, you dirty s*it, don’t call me again because I’ll f**k your mother’s p***y „.
Filchev’s monologue, staged as a conversation
in Georgi Lyubenov’s studio practically followed the motives with which his current successor Sotir Tsatsarov asked the Supreme Court of Cassation to resume the proceedings for the early parole of the convicted for murder Jock Palfreeman.
In order to gain momentum before it was thrown to the faces of the spectators, a manipulation was circulating in the media of the prosecutor’s office for almost a week. That the former Minister of Justice Hristo Ivanov met in his office with Palfreeman in order to submit jointly in the Penal Code the amendment for his early parole, said Filchev.
And he called his lie
„a small scene performed in front of the public“
If, after what the former Attorney General had said, journalistic ethics had been observed, BNT viewers should have heard that the amendment was being prepared by a working group in the mandates of two justice ministers, Hristo Ivanov and Ekaterina Zaharieva. And this happened after Bulgaria was convicted in a case filed by the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, the text, which allows prisoners to apply for parole themselves, has become part of the Penal Code at the urging of organizations such as the Council of Europe and the International Committee against torture. The latter was established as a body to monitor compliance with the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to which Bulgaria has been a party yet since 1987.
If the host of Sunday morning’s block on national television had observed only one of the professional principles in journalism, the viewers of his show would have understood that the prosecutor’s office, headed then and now by Sotir Tsatsarov, also participated in the working group for drafting the amendment in the Criminal Code.
In Georgi Lyubenov’s conversation with Nikola Filchev, the viewers did NOT hear something else as well: in Bulgaria, the ministers have no legislative initiative. For this reason, the proposal to amend the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Code, concerning the early parole of prisoners, was submitted to the National Assembly by a decision of the Council of Ministers, headed by Prime Minister Boyko Borsov. It was adopted on February 7, 2017
with the votes of the parliamentary majority dominated by GERB
Instead of all this, the audience of the national television had to hear from Filchev the lie that the decision to release Jock Palfreeman „was made by an illegal court panel“.
In order to be memorized even more firmly, the viewers had to listen again to the
militia mantras,
born most likely in the library institute.
That Kostov is guilty. Mostly for the privatization, but by default for everything.
That besides him, the guilty are the Helsinki Committee, the Union of Judges and personally Nelly Kutzkova because she is among its founders and one of its most active members (Filchev did not even dare to pronounce her name).
That Soros, the sorosoids, the grants and the existence of the civil sector are a rout, a national drama and a tragedy for Bulgaria. And all this, in order to sound
the message for which Filchev was brought to BNT –
„If you want Attorney General who will release the killers, don’t choose Ivan Geshev!“
It is this „scene“ that was played out for us on Sunday morning. But after that, Georgi Lyubenov will not be removed from the air because of „public presentation of a unilateral position in public media, which is an inadmissible and unprofessional violation of journalistic standards and ethical norms.“ This happened to the journalist from „Horizont“ Silvia Velikova, because of her critical attitude towards Geshev and his nomination for next Attorney General.
The members of the Management Board of the national television will not recommend „another journalist to be appointed in each department in order to ensure the inviolability of the public interest and to ensure pluralism of all points of view“. This hypocritical tactic was applied by their colleagues of the national radio, in an attempt to solve its unprecedented crisis, which they themselves allowed.
No, nothing like that will happen, because there is no place anymore. Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov’s hope that in the biography of BNT Director General Emil Koshlukov „there are different moments and it is possible to prevail those who will make him feel uncomfortable if he plays the role of an order boy“ did not come true.
With the invitation of Nikola Filchev on Sunday morning BNT „stopped“ for 28 minutes. And open the place for the time of the villains.
