Former Bulgarian Defense Minister, Nikolay Tsonev, who was charged with abuse of power over a public procurement tender, has been acquitted by the Sofia City Court.

After the announcement of the court's rule, Tsonev urged all Bulgarian citizens to keep their faith in the Bulgarian judiciary.

The Prosecutor's Office has announced it would appeal the court's rule. Earlier, the prosecutors demanded four years and a half imprisonment for the former minister.

In this particular trial, the ex minister who is also charged with bribing an investigator in a separate case, was tried because in the period February 12 – June 1, 2009, as a defense minister, he allegedly abused his power by allowing the purchase of an US assembly line for the construction of hangars, warehouses, army barracks, and for the supply and storage of food.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, the purchase damages the state treasury by BGN 8 M. It also claimed that Tsonev committed the crime deliberately.

The prosecutor's statement said that he concluded the deal with the goal to provide benefits for the company "MIC INDUSTRIES" and its representative, leading to material damage for the Defense Ministry in amount of nearly BGN 13 M. The non-material damage involves disturbing the schedule for army training.

Documents, collected by the Prosecutor's Office, have shown that the representatives of "MIC INDUSTRIES" were paid a commission by the producer of the deal, amounting to USD 482,000.

The Bulgarian representative of the company was Tanya Popova, the wife of the Deputy Foreign Minister from the Three-Way Coalition cabinet, Radion Popov. He was the representative of the US company for Bulgaria, but after being elected Deputy Minister, he transferred the rights to his wife, the Prosecutor's Office said.

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