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Veselin Pengezov was summoned to the headquarters of Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security (DANS) on Monday. Photo by BGNES
The Military District Prosecutor's Office has brought four charges against Veselin Pengezov, the chair of the Sofia Appellate Court.
All of them are of embezzlement, with three involving him as an accomplice and the fourth as having committed a military administrative abuse, according to StandartNews.
No detention of Pengezov has been ordered.
He told journalists he would defend himself alone, "like [one-time Bulgarian communist leader] Georgi Dimitrov during the Leipzig trial".
Pengezov explained he had prosecution immunity as a magistrate and that besides did not understand why he should be tried by the military only for being a former general. He also believes the trial against him is politically motivated.
Petar Petkov, the chair of the Military Appellate Court, was also indicted.
The two men claimed ten more people would be facing charges over the EU funds investigation which emerged last week claiming the Court of Appeals' chair took part in EU funds fraud schemes involving the introduction of an information system in military courts under the operational program Administrative Capacity.
The prosecution claims the scheme was in place before 2009, while Pengezov headed the Military Court of Appeals.
Its probe is likely to put a spoke in his ambitions to run for a second term as chair of Sofia Appellate Court in June.
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