New Delay in Bulgaria Notorious SAPARD Draining Case

Sofia City Court postponed yet again the trial against Mario Nikolov and eight other defendants over the draining of EUR 8 M from the EU SAPARD program.

The trial was halted after a lawyer of one of the defendants failed to turn up in court due to illness.

Three new witnesses had to take the stand on Friday. The prosecutors demanded that the witnesses, who are in Bulgaria, but failed to appear in court at the previous hearing, be forced into the court room. The witnesses from Switzerland and the Netherlands will be quizzed there.

Mario Nikolov's trial began on February 19; he is accused of numerous violations of the EU SAPARD program.

While the siphoning of millions of euros from the SAPARD funds was investigated as early as 2007, Mario Nikolov became truly notorious in June 2008 when a report by the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF leaked to the Bulgarian media.

The report referred to Nikolov and his partner Lyudmil Stoykov as the leaders of the "Nikolov-Stoykov" group, which was allegedly involved in a number of corruption schemes and enjoying political protection.

The OLAF Report also exposed the two businessmen as sponsors of the election campaign of Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov, and as people close to the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party.

Mario Nikolov's trial has become a test of the ability of Bulgaria's judiciary to make use of the evidence provided by OLAF.