HEAD OF BULGARIA’S IRRIGATION SYSTEMS SUSPENDED

The chairman of the board of directors of Irrigation Systems, Georgi Harizanov, has been suspended on the orders of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov after it emerged that charges were to be laid against Harizanov for alleged theft in 2001 when he occupied another post.
 
Harizanov allegedly was involved in the theft of 50 000 leva (about 25 000 euro) in May 2001. Media reports said that he also had been investigated for a separate incident in which he allegedly threatened someone.
 
Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naidenov, speaking on February 21 2012, said that the suspension had been ordered after discussions with Borissov. The decision had been taken to "avoid tension" in the company, Naidenov said. Other media reports said that Harizanov had suggested that he be suspended pending the outcome of the case.
 
Harizanov had said that he had passed a lie detector test in relation to the theft allegations, Naidenov said. He said that he was satisfied with Harizanov's performance at Irrigation Systems.
 
Naidenov told Bulgarian National Television that he was convening a meeting of the Irrigation Systems board to decide who would assume the leadership of the company.
 
Naidenov said that he was puzzled why prosecutors were only now pressing charges for an alleged crime committed in 2001.
 
It was not clear from Harizanov's CV, as provided by the Agriculture Minister, where Harizanov had been employed when the alleged crime was committed, Bulgarian-language media reports said.
 
However, Bulgarian-language news website said that the theft case arose from a May 2001 episode at a company where Harizanov had been employed as a sales agent. The money was stolen during the night, and he had been questioned as a witness but at the time, no charges were pressed. However, Harizanov was indicted in October 2010.
 
Earlier, Mediapool said that Harizanov had "lied" about having higher education. Naidenov had defended him, the news website said, saying that neither did Bill Gates.
 
The case of the alleged threat dates back to 2009 and the case was terminated in April 2010 but resumed in July 2010. The case had been assigned to a court which last held a hearing in the trial in November 2011, reports said.
 
Harizanov was quoted by mass-circulation daily Trud as saying that the cases were very old, and in the case of the alleged threat, the complainant had withdrawn, while in the second, the existence of the case had not been secret. He said that he could not understand why suddenly an indictment had been laid against him.
 
Asked whether he believed that there was a connection between the indictment and the post that he held, Harizanov said that he did not want to say that investigators and prosecutors were part of "some scheme" without his being 100 per cent certain.