The District Court in Kazanlak has ruled to amend the detention order for 61-year-old Valentin Zhelev, accused of being the owner of the former Home for the Elderly in the village of Yagoda in the Maglizh region. The man's order has been amended from “house arrest“ to “cash bail“ in the amount of 7,000 leva.
The court's decision was not protested by the District Prosecutor's Office in Stara Zagora and has entered into force, Nova TV reports.
The District Court in Kazanlak has accepted that from the collected evidence there is sufficient data from which a reasonable assumption can be made that the accused committed the crimes of which he is accused.
The court considered that there is no real danger that the accused will influence witnesses, manipulate or conceal evidence. Zhelev has a permanent address and a clean criminal record, which gave reason to consider that there is no real danger and that he will go into hiding.
The accused is in poor health, which requires him to visit hospitals almost constantly. For the reasons stated, the court panel considered that the imposed detention measure "house arrest" is currently too severe, and therefore should be annulled and replaced with a lighter one.
In September, a three-member panel of the Stara Zagora District Court annulled the ruling of the Kazanlak District Court, which did not grant the request to amend the most severe detention measure "detention in custody". The Stara Zagora court imposed the second most severe detention measure - "house arrest" with electronic monitoring of Zhelev. According to the court, the imposed "house arrest" will limit the defendant's movement, but will also give him the opportunity to take care of his deteriorating health.
We recall that in early June 75 elderly people were found in illegal homes for the elderly in the village of Yagoda in the Maglija region.