The trail against Bulgaria's the notorious pair of alleged local mafia bosses, known as the Galevi brothers, resumed Tuesday in the Regional Court in the southwestern city of Kyustendil.

Plamen Galev and Angel Hristov, known as the Galevi brothers, have been charged with extortion and racketeering. They have made headlines over the past year as self-proclaimed benefactors of Dupnitsa, an impoverished and dilapidated Bulgarian town at the foot of the Rila mountain, some 60 km south of Sofia, and as failed runners in the summer general elections.

From the 24 summoned witnesses, 17 arrived in the courtroom while 9 already took the witness stand. Most of them said they did not remember anything and did not know anything.

The only person offering more detailed testimony was the Dupnitsa policeman, Iordan Kostadinov, who testified in the case of the local journalist, Lidia Pavlova, who alleges Galevi blackmailed her to withdraw her complaint about the beating of her son by their bodyguard, Georgi Gradevski.

Kostadinov said he was called to Pavlova's home on the night of the alleged beating and found her son smelling alcohol and behaving erratically, adding Pavlova was trying to give him orders where to look for the perpetrator.

Other witnesses said they were at the bar owned by Galevi, where the beating reportedly took place, but did not remember any incident happening and read about it in the paper the next day.

The attorney for the claimants in the civil suit against Galevi, Anton Sirakov, says the witnesses' amnesia stems from the fact Galevi have been released from jail, which gave them the opportunity to exert pressure on those witnesses.

The defense council, on his part, declared each witness account was bringing his clients closer to the not guilty verdict.

The Galevi trial, launched in September, came in the wake of a large-scale and ostentatious raid by what appeared to be the state army, which rummaged offices, auto-houses and apartments in he capital Sofia, Pernik and Dupnitsa.Plamen Galev and Angel Hristov have been investigated over a long period of time for various crimes in the southwest town of Dupnitsa, (in the western Kyustendil Region), most notably racketeering and organized crime.

In mid-June, the Galevi brothers walked out of jail after both were allowed to run for parliamentary seats and thus receiving immunity from prosecution.

They failed to win seats in the 41st General Assembly, but are still free on bail.

Pavlova was recently awarded in recognition of her courage to expose Galevi's criminal activities.

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