Bulgarian Mayor Charged With Seeking Massive Bribe

The head of the Special Prosecution office, Ivan Gehsev, said on Wednesday that Desislava Ivancheva, the mayor of Mladost, one of the largest districts of Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, allegedly demanded a bribe of 500,000 euros to allow the construction of four new buildings in her district.

Ivancheva was arrested in a highly publicised operation of the police, the Special Prosecution Office and the Anti-corruption and Forfeiture of Assets Committee, AFAC, on Tuesday.

She was taken into custody after spending more than four hours handcuffed, on display at a busy central Sofia intersection.

Representatives of the country's anti-corruption bodies, including Gehsev and AFAC deputy president Anton Slavchev took part in the operation on Tuesday. At the same time, members of the two institutions blocked the Mladost municipality building.

On Wednesday, Geshev said Ivancheva was arrested in a municipality-owned car with 70,000 euros in a box in the back of the car.

"This amounts to more than 1,500 minimal salaries; you can count how many pensions these are," Geshev said, adding that this was just the deposit.

The prosecution claims that the mayor tried to racketeer a potential large-scale real estate investor, after postponing signing of a construction permit.

To catch Ivancheva with "the largest sum ever recorded", it took the specialised institutions ten teams and four months of work, the head of the Special Prosecution stated.

Asked if there was any other proof that Ivancheva took money from other investors, Geshev said there were a number of "outrageous" complaints made against the mayor at the mayor's office and the office of Sofia's Chief Architect.

Geshev also underlined that he was unhappy with the media coverage...