SERBIA COURT REJECTS EXTRADITION OF FORMER BULGARIAN BANKER

For the second time, the court ruled to overturn the decision which approved the extradition of Vassilev to Bulgaria and ordered the Belgrade High Court to repeat the procedure for identifying the grounds for Vassilev’s extradition, the spokesperson of the appeal court, Mirjana Pilic said on 5^th of April for Tanjug news agency.

In March 2015, the appeal court overturned the extradition ruling and sent the matter back to the high court for decision. The High Court twice ruled to extradite Vassilev: the last time was in April 2016, but since the court rules decisions for the extradition, not sentences, they may be returned to the high court unlimited number of times.

On 28^th of July 2014, Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s office accused Vassilev in abstentia for embezzling 206 million BGN from Corporate Commercial Bank. He surrendered to the police in Serbia on 16^th of September 2014, after the arrest warrant was received by the Serbian authorities. He was required to report in person to the Serbian police every work day.

On 10^th of March 2015, the High Court in Belgrade ruled to extradite Vassilev to Bulgaria. The decision was overturned on appeal on 11^th of March. The appeal court ordered the High court to repeat the procedure for identifying the grounds for the extradition.