Pardon of 'Petrich Escobar': Bulgarian parliament to hold extraordinary session
Bulgarian lawmakers will question prison chiefs on Tuesday over the pardon of a drug trafficker convicted in Greece. The decree was signed in 2022 by current President Yotova.
Archive image · Photo: Plamen Agov / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
Parliament Speaker Mihaela Dotsova has called an extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the BTA news agency reported. It will focus on medical reports and conduct records for Ognyan A., known as "Petrich Escobar," who was pardoned on Dec. 5, 2022. Those summoned include Ivaylo Yordanov, head of the Chief Directorate for Execution of Punishments, Sofia prison chief Svetoslav Penov and the prison's head at the time.
The request was filed by We Continue the Change (PP), and News.bg said lawmakers from Democratic Bulgaria and GERB also signed it. The man had been sentenced in Greece to 15 years for drug trafficking. The decree remitting the rest of his sentence was signed by then-Vice President and current President Iliana Yotova on grounds of serious ill health; News.bg said a seven-member medical panel had backed it.
The case became contentious after the news site Mediapool published footage it says shows the man in a violent fight at the prison hospital 19 days before the pardon. Mediapool reported the incident was not entered in his file. Lawmakers want to establish whether the institutions involved knew about it.