“When a deputy speaker of a parliament and leader of a political party represented in the country’s government initiates a case against a journalist who has investigated his business, there is no other way to interpret and understand such a case [other than this is a political trial],” Kashumov stated....
Vesselin Mareshki gained international prominence when French far-right leader Marine le Pen chose him as her political ally in Bulgaria.
But things started to go wrong when Mareshki lost the European elections in May. Now, judges have recognised him as the mastermind of a cross-border network of medicine traffickers.
Mareshki, the leader of the populist party Volya, is a successful businessman in Bulgaria. His specialty is hard discount retail. He owns a chain of filling stations and a chain of pharmacies, which – for obscure reasons – enabled him to sell fuel and medicines below market price....
Veselin Mareshki, together with his mother, 74-year-old Veska Mareshka, as well as two of their family companies, filed a lawsuit against Ahchieva for allegedly inflicting them non-pecuniary damage with seven broadcasts on BNT in 2017 and 2018. Allegedly, Mareshki suffered stress, mental discomfort and anxiety because the broadcasts of her journalistic investigation which also caused negative public attitudes towards the claimants in many other media.
The civil case was heard in the Sofia District Court in two hearings. In the courtroom, the TV broadcasts were viewed. Witnesses were questioned. Mareshki’s attorneys brought two deputies from the Volya Party to testify against Ahchieva.
However, every detail of her journalistic work was confirmed by the court. The case was closed at first instance, and she won it. The court ruled that there was no defamation, and indirectly – that Mareshki was indeed running a cross-border network of medicine traffickers.
Her lawyer Alexander Kashumov, with practice in human rights cases, made the case that this was clearly a political trial.
Photo [Vassil Donev/EPA/EFE]
Read the whole article by Georgi Gotev in EURACTIV Bulgaria