At the eve of the Athens Olympics BBC Panorama broadcast a film on Olympic corruption extracts of which were shown on some international news channels like Euronews. The extracts featured the president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC) and member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Mr. Ivan Slavkov attending a meeting where he entered into negotiations for remunerating his lobbying efforts in favor of London’s candidature for hosting the Summer Olympics. The “businessmen” initiating the meeting and offering the bribe turned out to be BBC journalists recording the exchange on a hidden video camera. Slavkov left in the middle of the meeting to attend a funeral leaving one of his aides. No money was given or taken. After the sensational BBC pictures went around the globe Mr. Slavkov’s IOC status was suspended and he was banned to attend the Athens Olympics- till IOC Ethics Commissions decides the case later in the year. Yet Slavkov’s version of events is that he had notified in advance a deputy IOC president and went on that meeting only with the aim to identify, disclose and discredit the bribers.

Mr.Ivan Slavkov (64) was the son in low of the former Bulgarian communist dictator Mr. Todor Jivkov. He became BOC president and IOC member in the 1980s. Before that he was allegedly the most successful director of Bulgarian national TV. Now he chairs the Bulgarian Football Union too. Since 1970s till today Slavkov has been successfully surfing within the high society miraculously unaffected by communism’s collapse. His playboy and whisky-addict life style has earned him many fans and much envy. He enjoyed showing publicly how he had cheated an Islamic embassy reception with a flat whisky bottle in his jacket. He had no restraints to speak loud against the Iraq war- recalled “Trud”, Bulgaria’s biggest daily. His fans call him “a favourite pet of destiny” and his enemies- “Bulgaria’s shame”. But he is mostly known as “The Big Brother” though the vast majority of poor Bulgarians view him as a shiny movie character with whom they have little in common.

Surprisingly enough the BBC sensational disclosures left mixed if not sour feelings with the Bulgarian public. It seems the BBC team has broken two criminal code and one constitutional provisions. The provocation to bribe and the unauthorised use of special technical means for collection of evidence are public crimes in Bulgaria punishable with prison sentences- art. 307 and art. 339a of the Criminal code. And no one can be voice or video recorded unless by his own consent or by law authorisation- art. 32/2/ of Constitution. Evidence collected by public crime is null, void and irrelevant. This explains why Bg prosecution is still reluctant to open a case against Mr. Slavkov while leaving the BBC team legally intact. Someone could have done his advance homework better to ensure respect for local law and order.

But the big question of substance which puzzles the Bulgarian public is why the bribe game against Slavkov was not finalised ? Why was not he given the negotiated bribe money to prove that he takes ? Why was local law enforcement not involved to collect the evidence in a proper way and to send Slavkov to hell ? Was it because they did not believe Slavkov would really take or was it because the sensation had to break before the Athens Olympics subject to a different agenda ? Whatever it is, from Bulgarian legal perspective the truth has been aborted leaving behind a feeling of a welcome incompleteness.

The scandal recalled some ghosts from Bulgaria’s recent past. The 1981 assassination attempt on the Pope was loudly assigned by western media to Bulgaria- how many remember now that the Bulgarian defendants at the Italian “Pope’s” trial have been unconditionally acquitted ? In late 1970s a Bulgarian defector working for BBC Mr. George Markov was murdered at London’s Waterloo bridge by a poison umbrella. Almost all believed he was killed by Bulgarian KGB agents. 15 years after communist collapse in Bulgaria (a NATO country) there is no conviction on George Markov’s assassination. But the Bulgarian umbrella story stays. Alleged Bulgarian breaches of international arms embargoes prop up loudly in world media from time to time- yet not so loud are the verified refutations. No wonder this nation has developed a sense of tiredness to be the convenient and handy “demon on duty”. And now Olympic corruption has found its comfortable Bulgarian home. One wonders how many of the 150 IOC members would have stood the same financial striptease better than Ivan Slavkov.

Bulgarian government TV rushed helpfully to re-broadcast the BBC film in prime time so that “all parties are heard”. Yet it does not plan likewise to hear all parties on Iraq’s war via Michael Moore’s “9/11”. Knowing the political corruption within Bulgarian elite, the BBC team could have made a much easier bingo shot by putting together a documentary “To Buy An Ally”- with some Oscar chances, instead of spending so much talent on Slavkov.

At the just finished magnificent Athens Olympics the Bulgarian sportsman in rings gymnastics was given the silver medal. While the medal awards ceremony was running, the bronze winner went to the silver Bulgarian pointedly raising his hand as the real champion. Non-Bulgarian papers later showed comparative photos of the silver rings prevailing over the gold ones. In those days for the ordinary Bulgarians before TV screens the symbol of Olympic corruption was not Ivan Slavkov.

There are no indications that the affair has affected the hard core of BBC fans in Bulgaria and especially those of the pre-1989 generation who nicknamed their radio antennas for BBC transmissions in those days as “the oxygen tubes in the marsh”.

In the Olympic month of August 2004 Bulgarian archeologists in a Thracian royal tomb of 5th century BC came across a 700 gr. ancient golden mask together with a 15 gr. golden ring with the image of an Olympic sportsman. They do not rival the world oldest gold treasure in Bulgaria of five thousand years BC. But the precious findings show how old the Olympic tradition on this land is and still ask:

“What is the real face behind the golden mask ?”

September 2004

Braykov’s Legal Office