Sofia City Court has reported that the accusation of murder made against Zlatomir Ivanov aka Baretata has been seriously cast into doubt.

The reasoning behind the court's decision, made last Thursday, to release Ivanov under house arrest, was announced on Monday.

The court maintains that there is sufficient evidence that Ivanov led a group, known as "The Firm", that was active in drug distribution. This accusation, however, cannot guarantee Ivanov's detention for long.

The reason is that the charge was made on February 6, 2009, and under Bulgarian law, the maximum period of detention is one year for such a crime. This would require the release of the accused on Saturday, February 6, 2010, if the murder case does not stand scrutiny.

In their decision to let Baretata out of jail and place him under house arrest, the judges stated that "from the analysis of all evidence on the case and putting in maximum efforts to establish evidence and persons testifying to a greater degree and definitiveness on the crime committed by the accused, the court reported that such evidence is sadly lacking at present".

Magistrates have stressed that the pieces of information that Beretata had ordered the murder of Rumen Stefanov aka Alf are very few.

The court decision makes it clear that the prosecution relies on the testimony of Tihomir Georgiev aka the Boxer, a witness against the Marguin brothers.

Georgiev had said that he heard a telephone conversation in which a third person told Ivanov: "Let's meet up regarding a case with Alf, and Baretata had responded: "There is no point in meeting up, act, I approve".

The magistrates have included in their decision the observation that, if there had been more evidence that Ivanov had ordered the murder of Stefanov, they would not have put him under house arrest, although he needs surgery because of a "high level of obstruction of the urinary tract".

They have emphasized that, if Ivanov is under house arrest, he can be controlled by the police and prosecution on a daily basis.

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