SOFIA CITY COURT RELEASED MPs SIDEROV AND CHUKOLOV ON BAIL

After a midnight hearing, which went on until the early hours on 18th of November, Sofia City Court released the leader of the nationalist “Ataka” party, Volen Siderov and MP Dessislav Chukolov.

Siderov and Chukolov had been taken into custody for 72 hours on 17th of November on charges of hooliganism in relation to the incident with their intrusion in the National Academy of Film and Theatre Arts in Sofia on 25th of October.

The court rejected the prosecutors’ request to keep the two MPs in custody permanently and ordered their release on bail. It described their arrest as procedurally incorrect, saying that such measure was applied only if there were technical difficulties in bringing the accused to the court and said there were no such difficulties in that case.

The main motive of the court to replace the arrest of Siderov and Chukolov with a release on bail was that there wasn’t sufficient evidence that Siderov and Chukolov would commit another crime if released, influence the investigation or abscond.

The motive that there were pending court cases against Siderov was also rejected with the argument that there were no sentences that came into force.

The prosecutors did not agree with the ruling of the court, saying there was a risk the two MPs to abscond.

The lawyer of Siderov and Chukolov said he was pleased, saying the motives of the court were extremely logical and consistent.

The court ruled Siderov and Chukolov to each pay 6,000 BGN bail within 7 days.