LEADER OF BULGARIA'S NATIONALIST ATAKA PARTY PLEADS GUILTY TO THREE CHARGES

The Leader of Nationalist “Ataka“ party, Volen Siderov, pleaded guilty to the charges in three court cases against him, Sofia City Court said on 10th of March.

On 14th of March, the court will hold hearings on three plea agreements. One of the three cases in which Siderov pleaded guilty is related to an incident in the town of Batak, in May 2011, when he and other Ataka members disrupted a concert celebrating an anniversary of the April uprising. The second incident is from 2013, when he attacked a journalist from Skat television and a police officer outside the National Assembly. The third incident was the intrusion of Siderov and another Ataka MP, Desislav Chukolov, on students in the National Academy of Film and Theatre Arts in Sofia, on 23rd of October 2015.

The three agreements include probation requiring permanent address registration, regular meetings with probation officer and community service, which will be in the form of deductions from his monthly salary.

Desislav Chukolov, Siderov’s fellow party member also pleaded guilty to the charge concerning the intrusion in at the National Film and Theatre Academy. The plea bargain also envisages a probation.

The plea bargains are subject the approval of the court.