2024-03-29 07:04:25
A protest was filed in the Administrative Court in Stara Zagora against the decision of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Economics at Thrace University for the election of Petar Iliev and his appointment as associate professor of public law in the department of “Industrial Business and Entrepreneurship”.
The protest was submitted by the prosecutor from the District Prosecutor’s Office in the city, Petya Draganova, on March 22, and a case has already been opened, reported Lyubomira Yancheva-presatashe of the court. Judge Darina Dragneva has been appointed as the reporter in the case, writes “For the truth”.
The District Prosecutor’s Office was investigating the case after media reports that the votes for Iliev’s election were not enough. Of the 20 people present at the Faculty Council, 10 people supported Iliev as an associate professor, 9 people cast an “against” ballot, and one voted with an invalid ballot. However, in the regulations of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Thrace, it is written that the election is carried out “with a simple majority of 50% plus 1”.
The prosecutor requests the annulment of the decision of the Faculty Council. Even after the election, the state prosecution sent its request to the rector of the university, Prof. Dobri Yarkov, but he stated that his lawyers did not find any violations in the competition. After a Faculty Council held on February 27, the recently elected dean Nikolay Penev sent a written statement to the prosecutor that his colleagues had postponed consideration of the case for one of the next meetings. Due to the lack of an attached protocol from this meeting, from which it is clear what issues were discussed, prosecutor Draganova considers that there is no ruling by the competent authority and therefore sends a protest to the Administrative Court, informs “For the Truth”.
In this case, there is another problem – the scientific work of Iliev, with which he became an associate professor, is undiscoverable, which is in violation of the law, since it should be public. It is not deposited in any of the scientific databases, nor in the “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” National Library.
This is another legal case with lawyer Petar Iliev. He was a candidate for minister in the two draft cabinets of “There is such a people” in 2021 – of justice and of internal affairs, as well as deputy prime minister.
At the same time, he was caught copying from someone else’s scholarly work without citing it in his legal monograph. The Ethics Commission of the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski”, where Iliev was teaching at the time, examined the case and issued an opinion stating that there was evidence of plagiarism and that the lawyer had copied from the work of Prof. Nataliya Kiselova along with the errors . Before proceeding with the proceedings, which could have resulted in punishment, Iliev left the university.
While the verification was being carried out, the plagiarized work appeared in an edition without the copied pages, but backdated – as if it were the original.
Soon after, he was selected as a part-time assistant at the University of Library Science and Information Technology (UniBIT), where he leads the elective “Legal Principles of Leadership” in the master’s program.
A pre-trial proceeding for plagiarism began against him, which led to the filing of an indictment in the Sofia District Court. However, he dismissed the case and sent it to the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office (SGP) because he accepted that the accused had immunity because he was the Honorary Consul of Barbados. The case is currently in the hands of a city attorney, who must decide whether to take it to court.