THE RE-OPENED SAPARD COURT CASE WAS ADJOURNED

The specialised court postponed the high-profile SAPARD case. The magistrates’ motives to adjourn the case were two: defendants did not appear in court due to undelivered summons and those who appeared did not receive the indictments within the seven days deadline, as provided for by the law.

The main defendant in the case, Mario Nikolov, was not found at the two addresses he provided. Therefore, the court is seeking information from the Border Police, the Directorate ‘Security of Prisons’ and National Investigation Service in order to find addresses of Nikolov’s relatives to deliver the summons.

The lawsuit against Mario Nikolov and six other defendants for siphoning off nearly 7 million BGN from the European Union’s SAPARD programme was scheduled to start from scratch in the specialised court in Sofia on Thursday, 23 January. The re-opening was announced earlier in January 2014 by the Bulgarian Prosecutor General, Sotir Tsatsarov.

In 2012, the Sofia Court of Appeal acquitted all the defendants in the case and it was returned to the Prosecution due to significant procedural violations.