Appellate Court Reinstates Director of Sofia’s 37th School, Accused of Taking a 10,000 Euro Bribe

The Court of Appeal reinstated the director of the 37th school in Sofia, Tsvetomira Georgieva following her formal request to return to her position.

School director arrested while receiving a bribe from a company involved in renovating the school with European funds

According to the court, Georgieva can continue in her role as school director, as doing so does not interfere with the ongoing investigation. The magistrates concluded that there are no subordinates under her management who are directly involved in establishing the facts of the case.

Georgieva was previously released on bail of BGN 1,000 after being detained on suspicion of receiving a bribe of €10,000. She was removed from her post following the arrest.

The decision to reinstate her had been postponed twice.

The first postponement was last week at the request of Georgieva's lawyer, who said he was busy with another case in the country.

On April 15, it emerged that Georgieva had been treated in hospital for the past six days and was discharged yesterday.

According to the investigation, Georgieva allegedly demanded BGN 20,000 (approximately €10,225) from a contractor involved in a publicly funded school renovation project under the “School STEM Environment” program. The project was financed by the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, with additional co-financing from the Bulgarian state budget.

The school successfully secured funding, and the total value of the contract was BGN 90,000 (about €46,000) including VAT. It is alleged that after the funds were transferred for construction and renovation works, Georgieva asked the contractor to return part of the money to her instead of using the whole amount for the renovation for which it was intended.

The prosecution claims that, following an initial meeting in early February, Georgieva agreed to receive the bribe in two installments—one after the initial payment and one after the final payment under the contract. She was arrested on February 20 while allegedly receiving the first installment of BGN 10,000.