FORMER BULGARIAN BANKER TSVETAN VASSILEV APPEREAD AT EXTRADITION HEARING IN COURT IN BELGRADE

The former majority shareholder of Bulgaria’s insolvent Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), Tsvetan Vassilev, appeared in the court in Belgrade on 16th of March for the hearing over the procedure for his extradition from Serbia. However, the court case was scheduled to continue on 6th of April.

According to sources of  BNT news programme "Around the World and at Home", the judge accepted the request of Vassilev's laywer for provision of new evidences and gave a three week deadline.

Sources of BNT news programme  "Around the World and at Home" said that more than a year and a half ago, Vassilev applied for political asylum in Serbia, but the authorities refused to grant it.

Serbian journalists commented today that according to information they had, some time ago Vassilev had applied for Serbian citizenship as well.

The applications for asylum and citizenship were most likely filed at the end of 2014, BNT reporter Ivo Nikodimov said. He added that Vassilev's motive was probably that the Serbian Constitution did not allow Serbian citizens to be extradited.

Before the sitting of the court, Vassilev told Bulgarian journalists that he did not want to speak before Bulgarian media, because according to him they were "poisoned" by those who caused the CorpBank's collapse.  He said that for a year and a half he had been saying that  it was a typical raiders' attack against the bank, well-motivated politically and supported by all Bulgarian institutions, and especially by the prosecutor’s office.

Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov commented for BNT from Brussels, saying that he was not concerned about what Vassilev says on the pavement outside the court and that more important was what he says in the protocol of the official questioning.

Bulgarian authorities have been trying for 18 months to secure Tsvetan Vassilev’s extradition to face charges of alleged embezzlement of 206 million BGN from Corporate Commercial Bank.

In March 2015, the first instance court in Serbia ruled to extradite Vassilev, but the Court of Appeals ruled to overturn the decision a week later and returned it to the lower instance court.

In February, Bulgaria’s prosecutor’s office requested assistance from two EU institutions in relation to the difficulties in securing the extradition of Tsvetan Vassilev from Serbia.