A civil rights activist leading a movement to expose malpractice and corruption is suing the Public Prosecutor’s Office for €15,000 for four months of illegal wiretapping, already confirmed by the National Intelligence Directorate.
In the summer of 2020, Georgi Georgiev was wiretapped during the protests against the third government of ex-prime minister Boyko Borissov and then chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev. Gerogiev’s movement BOEC was one of the organisers and active protest participants at the time. Georgiev’s lawyer, Metodi Lalov, told Euractiv.bg about the case.
“For four months, the prosecutor’s office acted against him by unlawfully, rudely and impermissibly entering his personal, including intimate sphere, as well as in the non-public part of his public communication as chairman of the BOEC,” the lawsuit states.
Georgiev was placed under special surveillance at the request of a prosecutor from the then Special Prosecutor’s Office, with the authorisation of the Special Court.
“As a result, in the period from 22.07.2020 to 22.11.2020, Georgi Georgiev was illegally monitored, eavesdropped, tracked, the secrecy of his correspondence and other communications was violated, the premises and belongings used by him were subject to illegal intervention and etc.,” the claim states.
Access was thus had by third parties, in particular from the Prosecutor’s Office and the Interior Ministry, without having the right to know about the communication of Georgiev or its content – with journalists, with judges, with representatives of state and municipal institutions, with representatives of diplomatic services of partner countries of Bulgaria, with citizens, with lawyers and others.
The illegal wiretapping of Georgiev was established during an official inspection by the National Control Bureau of the Special Intelligence.
Georgiev and his lawyer are now trying to obtain the information gathered against him using special intelligence tools from the prosecutor’s office. So far, they have been unsuccessful, but the prosecution must present the information to the court when the trial begins.
According to the lawsuit, Georgiev significantly reduced the use of his mobile phone for calls, mobile applications, e-mail and other means of electronic and remote communication due to the illegal use of the special intelligence. Instead, he began using them mainly for the most mundane household purposes or, in extreme cases, which led to significant inconvenience and discomfort.
In addition, the head of BOEC is concerned that the unlawful disclosure of communications with him during the period of illegal wiretapping may have harmed his friends, colleagues, relatives and the people who trusted him and shared with him personal or other information that should not have been disclosed to third parties.
As a result of the illegal actions against him, Georgiev now has difficulties in communicating with the partners and sources of the BOEC, who began to worry about communicating with him “so as not to be exposed by a new illegal use of wiretapping or to become the object of repression,” the lawsuit adds.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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