An appellate court heard Monday two complaints against the sentence for a truck driver, who was found guilty of causing the hellish crash near Byala.

The final ruling will be delivered within thirty days.

Sinan Aliev, 24, was sentenced to twelve years in jail and was stripped of his driving licence for fifteen years by the court in the Danube town of Russe at the beginning of April.

The man was found not guilty of overloading his truck and swaying its construction. He was sentenced to pay BGN 8 932 to the state and BGN 3 085 to Russe district court for costs and expenses.

The first complaint against Aliev's sentence was filed by the thirty-three relatives of the victims in the tragic incident, who demand that the defendant is jailed for fifteen years, the maximum sentence envisaged in local legislation.

The defence of Sinan Aliev also attacked Russe court ruling, demanding that their client is cleared on all charges.

Eighteen people were killed and another eleven were heavily injured on December 7 when a city bus collided with a truck and plunged into a river near the town of Byala.

An expertise showed the brakes of the truck were not working properly and that the vehicle was overloaded. Aliev knew that, experts claimed, and added those were the main reasons for the crash.

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