The Sofia City Court is to rule Monday in the high-profile case against Bulgaria’s alleged top crime bosses – brothers Krasimir and Nikolay Marinov aka The Marguins and four other defendants.

The prosecutor asked last week for a record-high verdict – 22 years behind bars for all 6 defendants, who are charged with plotting 3 murders. The minimum sentence for similar crimes is 15 years, but the verdict has been upped by 7 years – half of the minimum over the seriousness of the crime.

Krasimir Marinov aka the Big Marguin pleaded not guilty on Monday while Nikolay Marinov, the Little Marguin, is tried in his absence because he disappeared in January and his whereabouts remain unknown.

The Marguin Brothers together with Veselin Toshev, Stefan Rangelov, Ivo Karageorgiev, and Biser Iliev are charged with organizing a criminal group and plotting the murders Nikola Damyanov, and Ivan Todorov, aka The Doctor (a large-scale mafia boss specialized at international cigarettes contraband), and of General Lyuben Gotsev (who survived the attempt on his life).

The case has been dragging on for nearly five years already and has been postponed on several occasions over the ailing held of one of the defendants, Ivo Georgiev. Meanwhile, Georgiev's brother, Svetlin, who was also tried in the same case, passed away.

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