APPEAL COURT SITTING ON THE CASE OF 13 IMAMS ADJOURNED

The Appeal Court in the South Bulgarian city of Plovdiv sat on 27th of January to consider the appeal of the 13 imams and religious leaders, who had been accused in propagating antidemocratic ideology and in membership in the unregistered in Bulgaria radical religious organization.

The defence requested a new theological expert examination and summoning of witnesses from Saudi Arabia who were the alleged leaders of the Al Waqf Al Islam organization.

The 27th of January court hearing resulted from an appeal by the defendants and a prosecutor’s protest following a lengthy trial which ended in March 2014 when the regional court in Pazardzhik found all the defendants guilty. The court imposed one effective sentence, two suspended sentences and ten administrative fines.