site.btaUPDATED Sofia City Court Terminates Proceedings against Varna Mayor, Petitions Supreme Court of Cassation Over Case Jurisdiction

The Sofia City Court (SCC) on Wednesday terminated the judicial proceedings against Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev and the other defendants in the case, and is petitioning the Supreme Court of Cassation to determine which court has authority to handle it, the Court reported. The order is not subject to appeal or protest.

The Sofia City Court explained its decision by noting that, on the one hand, the indictment contains information that a member of Parliament conspired with the defendants, and the SCC is the only court competent to hear cases involving persons with immunity. However, the information regarding the MP indicates that no charges have been brought against, and therefore there is no need for the case to be heard by the SCC.

On the other hand, all the offences in the indictment were committed in Varna, except for one that began in the seaside city but was completed in Sofia. The Sofia City Court notes that under the Criminal Procedure Code, when a crime begins in the jurisdiction of one court and continues in the jurisdiction of another, the case falls under the jurisdiction of the court where the crime was completed. From this it follows that the case should be heard in Sofia.

For these two reasons, the Sofia City Court is referring the case to the Supreme Court of Cassation to determine where it should be heard.

Last week, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office submitted an indictment to the Sofia City Court in the case against Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev.

Here is what to know about the Kotsev case:

Elected mayor on the ticket of the opposition Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria in November 2023 - one of very few opposition mayors, including also that of Sofia, Kotsev was arrested on July 8 following a tip-off for corruption by a failed public procurement tenderer. He was charged with participation in an organized criminal group accused of engaging in abuse of office, bribery and money laundering. The court has consistently rejected his applications for release from custody, and accepted the prosecutors' argument that he may interfere while the pre-trial proceedings were going on. The pre-trial proceedings are now over but the prosecutors still refuse to have him released from custody. Kotsev's defence counsel have filed a new release application.

Kotsev's Continue the Change party insist that his arrest is part of a government campaign targeting the opposition. Large-scale protests in his support have been staged in Varna, Sofia and other major cities. The Renew Europe group in the European Parliament where Continue the Change is affiliated,  sees Kotsev's extended detention as "an onslaught on democratic institutions and rule of law in Bulgaria".