Kanal 5 TV reports on widespread abuse of protocols for accessing evidence in the disgraced Special Prosecutor’s Office.

The TV channel cites sources within the now disbanded SPO who say that prosecutors would routinelly access the wiretaps given to them as evidence without registering, and would often take the tapes at home, exposing the evidence to abuse. It is widely presumed that the tapes containing illegally recorded conversations of opposition politicians and businessmen were used for blackmail and extortion.

Former Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, now detained on corruption charges, reportedly demanded that her prosecutors sign antedated receipts that they accessed the evidence cache. “Our sources say that only a very small number of employees agreed to sign these receipts”, Kanal 5 reports.
Additional security lapses include the violation of the order against networking the computers. The SPO allowed prosecutors to access the tapes from any computer in the office, instead of only using the specially prepared work stations.