The Supreme Court of Cassation (VKS) of Bulgaria has confirmed rulings by two other courts that Tsvetan Tsvetanov, a former Interior Minister and now deputy head of the main ruling party, is not guilty of embezzlement.

Tsvetanov was accused of embezzling BGN 50 000 to the benefit of Orlin Todorov, who at the time headed the local unit of the Chief Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP) in the city of Veliko Tarnovo, north central Bulgaria.

Prosecutors alleged he had allowed the transfer of money to Torodov as indemnization for a period when the GDBOP official had been under arrest and investigation over another case. The money supposedly included salaries and compensation for forced retirement for paid leave he had been unable to use.

The decision of VKS, a high court of last instance, puts an end to a years-long trial, with judges ruling he has not breached the law by allowing Todorov to remain in office until reaching retirement age. Magistrates believe launching pretrial proceedings and indicting Todorov was not enough to dismiss Todorov from the Interior Ministry.

Tsvetanov, Interior Minister between 2009 and 2013 and the "engine" behind a number of party structures ever since PM Boyko Borisov's GERB party was set up in 2006, has always maintained the trial against him was "political".