Bulgaria Indicts Former Premier

Former Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov has been indicted on charges of impoverishing Bulgaria by giving millions of dollars to Communist movements in Third World countries.

Prosecutor Mihail Doichev said Friday that 21 other former Communist Party officials, including longtime Stalinist ruler Todor Zhivkov, will be indicted on similar charges in coming weeks.

Doichev said the case will likely go to trial later this year. If convicted, defendants could face 10 to 30 years’ imprisonment.

Zhivkov was sentenced in September to seven years in jail for economic crimes but is appealing the sentence.

In an interview in Friday’s Kontinent newspaper, Doichev said Lukanov participated in government decisions between 1981 and 1989 to give $4.4 million in aid to Communist movements in developing and Third World countries.

Lukanov said that the charges were motivated by “political revenge.”

Lukanov was a deputy prime minister and foreign trade minister in the 1980s.

He is now a member of Parliament for the Socialists--formerly Communists.