The District Court in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas postponed Monday the trail against the former Head of the Finance Department of the Bulgarian Judicial Council, Ilyana Nakova. Photo by DarikNews Burgas
The District Court in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas postponed Monday the trial against the former Head of the Finance Department of the Bulgarian Judicial Council, Ilyana Nakova.
Nakova was scheduled to appear at the Burgas District Court on Monday. She is charged with an attempt to bribe an official at their duty post, according to article 304, paragraph 1 of the Bulgarian legislature, and with causing a traffic accident.
The trial was postponed because the copy of the indictment has been made available to the Defense on January 26, thus the seven-day mandatory period, needed for the Defense to prepare, has not been adhered to. The trial has been moved to March.
The high ranking Supreme Judicial Council employee was involved in a hit and run accident at the "Sunny Beach resort" in August of 2008. Nakova hit then with her jeep a 66-year-old German tourist. Accident witnesses have recalled seeing her trying to flee the scene, but the German tourist's husband's cries made people stop the jeep.
During the investigation of the incident, the policemen had asked Nakova to take the alcohol test. She, reportedly, had threatened them and told them that they would be fired. After a second request to voluntarily submit to the test, she had thrown in the patrol car 3 BGN 20 bills, telling the policemen to have a drink on her because "she knew they did not make enough money." The policemen have asked the driver to take her money back, but she had refused.
At the time Nakova was detained for 24 hours, to be later released on bail after posting a BGN 300 bond. The Bulgarian law provides for similar crimes a punishment of up to six years in jail and a fine of up to BGN 5,000.
Nakova denies all allegations.