Deljan Peewski

Deljan Slawtschew Peewski ( Bulgarian Делян Славчев Пеевски , born July 27, 1980 in Sofia ) is a Bulgarian lawyer , entrepreneur , oligarch and politician . He was in the 41st (2009) and 42nd (2013) parliamentary term in the Narodno Sabranie .

His election as chairman of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) on June 14, 2013 was the main trigger for the protests against the Oresharsky government .

Deljan Peewski is said to have close ties to organized crime .

Together with his mother Irena Krastewa , Deljan Peewski runs a press company and a television station. Officially, only his mother is the owner. It also owns the largest printing company in Bulgaria, the “Rodina Publishing and Printing Complex” (Bulgarian ИПК “Родина”). Competing publishers also point out that Peewski owns a number of newspaper distributors, but there is no evidence to support this.

biography

Deljan Peewski co-founded the youth movement of the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NDSW) party in 2001 : Youth NDSW (Bulgarian Младежко НДСВ). The then Transport Minister Plamen Petrow appointed the then 21-year-old Peewski as parliamentary state secretary and entrusted him with the chairmanship of the supervisory board of "Hafen Warna AG" (bulg. "Пристанище Варна" ЕАД), the largest port in Bulgaria. However, he was later released from this post because he did not have the required professional qualifications. At that time he was a third year law student at the Neofit Rilski South West University in Blagoevgrad .

Under the government of Simeon Sakskoburggotski , Irena Krastewa , the mother of Deljan Peewski, was the director of the Bulgarian Sports Betting (Bulgarian Български спортен тотализато). It is believed in the press that Deljan’s mother’s friendship with Simeon Sakskoburggotsk’s spokeswoman Galja Ditschewa helped a lot in his first appointment as parliamentary state secretary. The scandal surrounding the attempt to privatize the Universiada sports hall in Sofia and the “Totochance” sports complex on Golden Sands , in which Peewski, his mother and the sports minister Vasil Ivanov-Lutschano (Васил Иванов-Лучано) were involved , also fell during this period . An investigation process then failed.

From May 2005 Peewski was a public prosecutor in the economic department of the Sofia Public Prosecutor's Office, although he had not had a single day of practical legal experience and the law required two years of professional experience for this post. Five months later he was appointed Deputy Minister for Civil Protection in the government of Sergei Stanishev . There he was responsible for the state reserves, which were repeatedly subject to major scandals due to improper enrichment. He also became a member of the inter-agency commission responsible for approving export transactions with dual-use goods. In practice, these are potential arms exports, an area in which a lot of bribes flow.

In the summer of 2007, Peewski turned out to be among the main characters in a major scandal surrounding the Bulgartabak company . Bulgar tobacco is the largest tobacco producer in Bulgaria and also in Southeastern Europe and got in the headlines because of the opaque privatization and the sale to an unknown investor (a holding company "BT Invest" with unknown owners who are hidden by the financing banks). It is speculated whether Peewski is the "secret" buyer of Bulgar tobacco. The main characters in the scandal included the then Minister of Economy Rumen Ovcharow , his deputy Kornelija Ninova and the director of Bulgartabak, Christo Lachev, and the head of the investigation, Angel Aleksandrov. At that time, Director Christo Lantscheew accused the Deputy Minister Deljan Peewski of extortion. Peewski had asked him that Bulgartabak should enter into contracts with companies (Bulgartabak should give contracts to an advertising company and a construction company) from which Peewski benefited.

Rumen Ovcharow was forced to resign because of the scandal, Angel Aleksandrov had to give up his post after a long vacation. Kornelija Ninowa and Deljan Peewski were dismissed from the government.

The trial ended with Peewski's dismissal. The prosecution dropped the case against Peewski for lack of evidence. The Supreme Judicial Council rehabilitated him and reinstated him as a public prosecutor, as the law allows MPs, ministers and deputy ministers as well as mayors to resume their posts in the Bulgarian judicial system after their term in office. Two weeks later, Peewski was again Deputy Minister for Civil Protection.

Deljan Peewski was a member of the NDSW from 2001 to 2009. He has been a member of the DPS since 2009 and has been a member of the Bulgarian Parliament for the 41st electoral term (since July 14, 2009) , although he almost never appeared at its sessions.

Since July 29, 2009 he has been a member of the Committee on Internal Security and Public Order . He has been a member of the Legal Affairs Committee since January 20th .

On June 14, 2013 Deljan Peewski was elected chairman of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) in parliament with 116 votes in favor of the BSP and DPS .

Peewski's election came just a day after the changes to the DANS law were announced. This amendment to the law was passed by Parliament in an urgent procedure. With these changes in the law, DANS received police rights (right to arrest for 24 hours and the right to search) and powers of prosecution. The DANS became the successor to the Main Directorate for the Fight against Organized Crime (GDBOP) (Bulgarian Главна дирекция за борба с организираната престъпност; ГДБОП). The main part of the amendment to the law related to the requirements for the chairman of DANS, who no longer had to have extensive practical experience as before and for whom legal training was sufficient. The legislative changes had been tailored to Peewski, including the length of previous legal experience required. With the amendment to the law, the previous possibility of an early recall of the chairman in the event of serious offenses or systematic non-fulfillment of service obligations as well as actions that tarnish the reputation of the service has been abolished.

Under the pressure of the protests against his appointment that began that same day, especially in Sofia, and also because of the expressions of disapproval by Bulgaria's Euro-Atlantic partners, the Bulgarian parliament unanimously reversed its decision.

Personal life

Peewski is in a relationship with the pop and folk singer Zwetelina Janewa .

media

In fact, Deljan Peewski and his mother own a large media empire. In addition to numerous newspapers, he owns a large printing company and a press distribution network, as well as television stations.

The media controlled by Peewski include the newspapers:

• Telegraph (Bulgarian Telegraph)
• Monitor (Bulgarian Монитор)
• Politika (Bulgarian Политика)
• Weekend (Bulgarian Уикенд)
• Vseki den (bulg. Всеки ден)
• Meridian mud (Bulgarian Меридиан мач)
• Borba (bulg. Борба) - a regional newspaper in Veliko Tarnovo
• Tschernomorski far (bulg. Черноморски фар) - a regional newspaper in Varna
• Minache gedini (Bulgarian Минаха години)
• Wtora mladost (Bulgarian Втора младост - the second youth)

and the TV channels:

• TV7 (ТВ7)
• ББТ
• TV 7 News (Нюз7)

as well as the website:

• BNEWS
• Всеки ден

Although his name as the owner hardly appears anywhere in these media, he sets the editorial direction and determines the personnel policy. He fires and hires the journalists.

Peewski's business interests also extend to the Bulgartabak company , in which KTB-Bank has a stake. He has stakes in Balgarska telekomunikazionna kompanija (BTK) (Bulgarian Българска телекомуникационна компания) and the mobile communications provider Vivacom .

Web links

• Media concentration in Bulgaria. Man in the shadow , Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 7, 2013
• Giga Lacrimosa - 80 gigapixel photo mosaic by Deljan Peewski

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reinhard Veser: Citizens against the Mafia. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, July 10, 2013.
2. ↑ Tim Gerrit Köhler: Protests in Bulgaria against the head of government. Loss of confidence at a record pace. ( Memento from June 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) ARD, tagesschau.de, June 21, 2013.
3. ↑ Michael Gahler, MEP and Security Policy Spokesman for the EPP Group in the European Parliament: Democracy at risk - Bulgaria threatens Ukrainian and Romanian conditions. Press release June 14, 2013.
4. ↑ Milen Radev: News from the land of roses and muscle men. de-zorata.de June 14, 2013.