SOFIA: A row erupted in Bulgaria Thursday over what critics called the "show arrest" of a politician, one of the first investigated by a new high-profile unit set up to fight widespread corruption.
Desislava Ivancheva, mayor of Mladost, one of the biggest districts of the capital Sofia, was handcuffed for hours on the pavement during her arrest on Tuesday, all under the glare of television cameras and balaclava-clad policemen in the centre of the city.
Two alleged accomplices were also held along with Ivancheva, who was in possession of 70,000 euros ($86,600) in low-denomination banknotes, prosecutors said.
Ivancheva is accused of having agreed to accept a 500,000-euro bribe from a businessman to speed up authorisation of a building project.
Although an independent, Ivancheva was elected with the support of the opposition Socialists and much of the political and media reaction to her arrest has divided along partisan lines, with the left-wing newspaper Sega calling the manner of her arrest "humiliating".
Lawyer Nikolay Hajighenov, who runs an anti-corruption blog and is a critic of the government, told public radio: "This show arrest has nothing to do with justice. A bribe is proved when it's handed over, not after a chase through the centre of the city."
Even Ekaterina Zaharieva, deputy prime minister for judicial reform, said the operation had "gone a bit over the top", prompting an angry retort from chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov.
"What's the meaning of this statement when we're talking about the first serious case being investigated under the direction of the new unit," Tsatsarov said, pointing to what he called a "gap between official rhetoric and actual expectations" in the fight against corruption.
Bulgaria is ranked as having the worst corruption problem in the European Union and Brussels has long put pressure on Bulgaria to redouble efforts to stamp it out.
The new anti-corruption unit was put in place at the beginning of the year when Bulgaria took over the EU's rotating presidency.
The law setting up the unit was voted through in December with the aim of investigating prominent figures, their income and possible conflicts of interest.
President Rumen Radev, who is supported by the opposition Socialists, has criticised the measure as "ineffective".