How Bulgaria Retaliated Against an Application under the Magnitsky Act

Dr. Radosveta Vassileva

In Bulgaria, mainstream media ignored the news that Russia attempted to trap Bill Browder via Interpol for the fifth time. Bill Browder is the author of Red Notice who lobbied the US Government to enact the Magnitsky Act. The Magnitsky Act allows the US Government to sanction corrupt government officials implicated in human rights abuses.This time Russia’s prosecution relied on a loophole in Interpol’s rules and issued Browder a Diffusion notice, which is used in cases of extreme urgency. Do you know what a Diffusion notice is? Are you aware that Bulgaria’s prosecution also abuses Interpol’s Diffusions?

Notably, on 11 August 2017 Tzvetan Vassilev filed an application under the US Magnitsky Act. On 14 August 2017 Bulgaria’s prosecution retaliated by raising fabricated charges against his daughter, issuing a national arrest warrant, a European Arrest Warrant and an Interpol Diffusion all on the same day with the purpose of trapping her when she presents her research at international conferences. All this abuse in blatant violation of Bulgarian law, EU law, and the European Convention on Human Rights.

If the topic is of interested, you can read Dr. Radosveta Vassileva’s article “How to Purge a Scholar? A Guide to Bogus Interpol Notices from Bulgaria” here. You can also watch her video blog post “How Bulgaria Retaliated Against an Application Under the Magnitsky Act” here.