Bulgarian Crime Court Wraps Up First Case

Bulgaria’s new Specialized Criminal Court for organized crime and corruption closed its first case on Tuesday with plea bargains for four of five defendants. The first organized crime trial began on 16 January and culminated Wednesday in a plea bargain for Stepan Dimitrievich Kara, Georgi Borisov Boshnqkov, Ivan Kostov Ivanov and Silvia Mladenova Kapchikova, who admitted to running a drug dealing operation. One of the defendants was sentenced to one year in prison, two were sentenced to three years of probation, and the fourth defendant received a sentence of one year in prison deferred for three years. A fifth defendant, Ilia Deruzov, pleaded not guilty and will be tried by another panel of judges. The Court was originally designated to deal with high-profile cases of organized crime and corruption, but later shifted its focus to organized crime cases dealing with murder, smuggling, drug trafficking, bribery, and kidnapping. According to the head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office, Borislav Sarafov, and the head of the Appellate Specialized Prosecutor’s Office, Svetozar Kostov, the newly established court has already taken over 80 cases from other courts across the country.