Bulgarian ex-PM Petkov faces prosecutors over 2022 arrest of political rival

By Georgi Slavov

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said after testifying to prosecutors on Friday that he had committed no crime in the 2022 arrest of political rival Boyko Borissov in which Petkov is accused of overstepping his authority.

Borissov, who is also a former prime minister and still leads the centre-right GERB party, spent 20 hours in custody along with two members of his party in March 2022 as part of a police investigation into alleged blackmail. They were released without charge.

Prosecutors say Petkov "exceeded his authority" by ordering the arrests without the proper court approvals. According to charges published last month, the prosecutors allege that he undermined "the prestige of the executive power - a crime under Article 1 of the criminal code".

Petkov, who is now co-chairman of the "We Continue the Change" party, denied wrongdoing on Friday. He said the charges were politically motivated.

"I have committed no crime," Petkov told reporters outside a court as a crowd of supporters gathered nearby. "I only hope that because of this case there will be full clarity of how the Bulgarian judicial system works."

Bulgaria is the poorest member of the European Union and one of its most corrupt states, corruption experts say. It has been trying to join the EU's single currency for years but has been rejected, most recently because of high inflation.

Bulgaria has been locked in a political crisis ever since anti-corruption protests in 2020 helped topple a coalition government led by Borissov. In October, the country held its seventh snap election inside four years as fractured political parties struggled to form a stable coalition.

Borissov's GERB won the most votes in October but failed to secure a majority. A coalition including Petkov's "We Continue the Change" came second. With no clear outcome, another election is expected in the coming months.

(Reporting by Stoyan Nenov and Georgi Slavov; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Edward McAllister and Timothy Heritage)