SOFIA PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE LODGED THE INDICTMENT AGAINST MINISTER OF DEFENCE NIKOLAI NENCHEV

Sofia City Prosecutor's Office submitted an indictment against the outgoing Minister of Defence Nikolai Nenchev, the prosecutor’s office said on 16th of January. The indictment was submitted to the court. The minister is accused of malfeasance in office causing significant harmful consequences for the Bulgarian army and the case is particularly severe.

According to the indictment, for the period from 5th of May, 2015 to 9th of September, 2015, Nikolai Nenchev did not fulfill his official duties in accordance with the requirements of the Law on Defense and Armed Forces (LDAF) and did not provide aviation safety and airworthiness of military aircraft from fighter aircraft of the Military Air Force of the country.

The prosecution also accuses Nenchev that he had instructed his deputy, Dessislava Yosifova, to take no action on two contracts signed between the Defence Ministry and RSK MiG on extending the life of two MiG-29 engines and repair of two other engines and a box air unit for MIG-29, for a total value of 3,773,000 euro. Nenchev ordered Yosifova to keep the contracts in an official safe and take no action on their implementation. In the following months, he gave same instructions to his subordinated officials in the minister, the prosecution says.

The prosecutors alleged Nenchev that in the period between 7th of November 2014 and 29th of March 2016, Nenchev violated the Law on Defence and Armed Forces and failed to affirm a project for investment costs for repair of units and supply of spare parts for the aircrafts and failed to secure the aviation safety of the Bulgarian Air Force’s fleet and pilots.

The prosecutor’s statement says that Nenchev’s offenses caused significant harmful consequences for the Bulgarian military as the pilots’ annual flying hours fell to 33, provided that NATO’s standard is 180 or minimum 80 hours per year. This, according to the prosecution, led to raising the risk of serious aircraft accidents due to reduction in the preparednesss of the pilots. Nenchev’s offence resulted in reduction in the number of trained Air Force pilots and overloading the pilots on combat duty under Air Policing. This made it impossible to maintain the required number of trained Bulgarian Air Force pilots, the prosecutors said.