Rumen Rashev, former mayor of Bulgaria's medieval capital Veliko Tarnovo, will spend three years in jail on charges of power abuse, a local appeals court ruled on Friday.

The other defendant in the case, Tarnovo former chief architect Elena Abadzhieva was delivered a suspended three-year sentence.

"Of course I will appeal. This is a politically motivated and blatantly unjust verdict," Rashev commented after the court session.

In April last year Veliko Tarnovo District Court found Rashev guilty in abusing his authority and causing damage to the city amounting to BGN 423,000.  He was delivered a suspended sentence of 2 years in jail for abuse of power.

The Veliko Tarnovo former mayor however appealed only to be handed down a much tougher sentence.

Rashev and Elena Abadzhieva were prosecuted of overstepping their powers by offering a municipality-owned land plot to a private construction company which profited a total of BGN 3.5 M from the deal.

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