Former Deputy Mayor of Sofia Nikola Barbutov and his advisor - Petar Rafailov appeared in court again. The two continue to be under a permanent measure of "detention in custody" after the session of the Sofia City Court on Friday. The lawyers of both appealed this decision.
The court's decision is - Rafailov will be released on bail of 10 thousand leva. Barbutov remains in custody, Nova TV reports.
At the end of June, they were detained on charges of participating in an organized criminal group for the purpose of corruption, official misconduct and bribery. According to the prosecutor's office, Barbutov put pressure on the district mayors of “Lyulin” and “Mladost” to choose certain companies in public procurement. The deputy mayor promised that 6% of the amounts would return to them.
According to lawyer Ina Lulcheva, since the arrest of Barbutov and Rafailov, the investigating authorities have done almost nothing, except for questioning the district mayors of “Lyulin” several times and “Mladost”. According to the defense, there are no real motives for the two to continue being detained, and on the contrary - the prosecution is doing everything possible to prevent facts from being examined during the trial that would confirm their innocence.
In the meantime, today, the measure of Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev was to be considered. We recall that his defense is requesting house arrest. However, the hearing was postponed due to the recusal of the court panel. The case was reassigned to a new panel of the court today, and the measure will be considered on Tuesday. The judges who recusal were supported by the Prosecutors' Association, where they came up with a position.
A NOVA investigation showed that on Wednesday, the case for the measure of non-detention of Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev was reassigned to a new panel of the Sofia Court of Appeal. The rapporteur will be Judge Margaritka Sharbanova, the chairman of the panel is the former head of the appellate special court, Georgi Ushev, and the third judge is Venelin Ivanov.
The case should be heard on Tuesday, when this panel is on duty and in session.
This has come to this point after the panel that was supposed to decide on Kotsev's measure today recused itself. According to the three judges, who two months ago, in the same panel, left the mayor in custody, tendentious allegations about “addictions“ oblige them to refuse to hear the case. The reason - so that there are no doubts about bias, even if it is artificially created.