Bulgaria's Key SAPARD Trial to Be Re-launched in Early 2013
Crime | December 24, 2012, Monday| 1121 views
Send to Kindle
Boyko Naydenov, interim Chief Prosecutor and head of Bulgaria's National Investigative Service. Photo by BGNES
Bulgarian interim chief prosecutor Boyko Naydenov has confirmed that the failed SAPARD money laundering case against murky businessman Mario Nikolov will start from scratch in early 2013.
Naydenov has told the Bulgarian National Radio that an investigation will be carried out to establish whether prosecutor Stoycho Nenkov, who did not protest the not guilty verdicts of Nikolov and the other defenders, had enough time to scrutinize the case.
The interim chief prosecutor has also revealed that he has proposed to the Supreme Judicial Council to expel Nenkov.
Prosecutors recently stepped back from their protest of the acquittal of businessman Mario Nikolov and the other defendants in the country's highly publicized SAPARD money laundering case.
They were charged with participating in an organized crime group engaged in laundering EUR 7.5 M drained from the EU agriculture program SAPARD.
The move fully cleared the defendants of all charges, bringing to an end a strongly politicized trial, which was closely monitored by the European Commission.
It emerged later that Stoycho Nenkov, Prosecutor from the Sofia Appellate Prosecutor's Office, has decided on his own to not file an appeal .
Tags: Supreme Judicial Council, Supreme Court of Cassations, Prosecutor's Office, VSS, Boyko Naydenov, abuse, corruption, EU funds, European Commission, embezzlement, Lyudmil Stoykov, Mark Gray, Sofia Court of Appeals, Sofia City Court, Supreme Judicial Council, Supreme Administrative Court, OLAF, EU, money laundering, fraud, EU funds, SAPARD, Mario Nikolov, Stoycho Nenkov
» Subscribe to receive alerts by email for any of these keywords.
