Well, it appears that Bulgarian criminals are getting tough sentences, where they deserve them.
Taken from
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Mario Nikolov, the Bulgarian businessman charged with draining €7.5 million from the EU agriculture program SAPARD, was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Sofia City Court on Wednesday.
Nikolov and a group of accomplices – his wife Mariyana, Radmil Petrov, Petya Hadzhiivanova, Anna Sharkova, Grigor Glavev, Valentin Angelov, and Lazarina
Georgieva – were charged with participating in an organised crime group engaged in draining funds by importing second-hand meat processing equipment and declaring it as new to obtain EU subsidies, Novinite reports.
In the court's ruling on Wednesday, Radmil Petrov and Petya Hadzhiivanova were acquitted, while Nikolov's wife Mariyana Nikolova was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. All of the other defendants were pronounced guilty and given ten year sentences except Grigor Glavev, who was given a three year sentence.
The prosecutor had asked for 17 years behind bars for Nikolov, 14 years for his wife and 12 years for each of the other defendants.
Nikolov claimed that he was a “scapegoat” for the malfunctioning judicial system in Bulgaria.
On March 29, Sofia City Court sentenced Nikolov to ten years behind bars and his wife, Mariana, to 8 years in another notorious SAPARD case. The two were charged, along with businessman Lyudmil Stoykov, with laundering the money drained from SAPARD. Stoykov was acquitted by the Court. The trial was prompted by and investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF, which spoke of a “Nikolov-Stoykov Group”. Four other persons were convicted in the case.
If both verdicts stand, Nikolov is to serve the longer, 12 year sentence. Nikolov has the right to appeal in front of Sofia Appellate Court.
Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:42 am
