Evelin Banev, also known as Brendo, was handed a final sentence of ten and a half years in prison by the Sofia Court of Appeals. The punishment will be carried out under an initial strict regime. Nearly a year that Banev spent in custody in Italy and the period he has already spent in prison in Sofia will be deducted from the total sentence.

The court rejected the protest lodged by the prosecutor’s office, which aimed to overturn the ruling and recalculate the total term. The magistrates pointed out that the protest did not include a specific request to increase the sentence by up to half of the most severe one imposed, so they could not examine such a possibility.

Banev had requested to serve a single, consolidated sentence in Bulgaria for his convictions in Bulgaria, Romania, and Italy. On April 28, the Sofia City Court sentenced him to more than ten years in prison for crimes he committed in all three countries.

In Italy, Banev was given 20 years for leading a criminal group and for drug trafficking. In Romania, he received a sentence of ten years and six months. According to Bulgarian legislation, such offenses require a lighter sentence to be imposed when merging sentences from different countries.

At the first hearing, Banev participated via video link from the Sofia prison, where he expressed support for the arguments presented by his lawyer.

The Bulgarian court emphasized in its decision that the Italian authorities had not provided the reasons for Banev’s sentence, and the communication between institutions took nine months and was extremely slow.

On June 24 of the previous year, Evelin Banev turned himself in to the Sofia prison, having been declared internationally wanted since 2018.