BULGARIA’S PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OFFICIALLY NOTIFIED ABOUT TZVETAN VASSILEV’S ARREST IN SERBIA

The Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Bulgaria was notified on 17th of September about the arrest of Tzvetan Vassilev in Belgrade and the measure of bail conditions, announced the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation:

On 17th of September 2014, at 07.26 a.m., the international department of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation received a fax from the Directorate “International Operational Police Cooperation” of the Ministry of Interior, which informs the Prosecutor’s Office about the following: the Bulgarian citizen, Tzvetan Radoev Vassilev, who has been internationally circulated as a wanted person by Interpol, with the purpose of arrest and extradition, was detained on 16th of September 2014, at 09.00 a.m., local time, by the Serbian judicial authorities. At 12.00 a.m., Vassilev appeared at the Serbian court and after the hearing he was imposed a restriction requiring him not to change his current address. Vassilev’s passport was seized and he was required to report in person to the Serbian authorities every work day from 9.00 to 15.00.

The court required Vassilev to specify an address where he will reside and ruled that Vassilev had to remain available at this address, in addition to the requirement to report in person to the Minister of Interior every day. According to comments, the measure is more like a house arrest, because Vassilev does not have the right to leave the address for any other reasons except for the daily visit to the nearest police station in order to report in person.

For the time being, it is not known whether this address would be in the Serbian town of Paracin, where Vassilev owns a property and the largest glass factory on the Balkans, or in Belgrade. Another argument says that Vassilev has pointed an address of a hotel on Belgrade, where he would stay until the end of the court procedure, which is supposed to decide whether Vassilev should be extradited to Bulgaria or not.

Tzvetan Vassilev is the majority shareholder in Corporate Commercial Bank, which was placed under special supervision in June.

The Bulgarian authorities issued a European arrest warrant and circulated Tzvetan Vassilev on the Interpol’s wanted persons list. On 16th of September, Vassilev surrendered to the police in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade. According to his lawyers this followed after the official arrival of the arrest warrant in Serbia.