site.btaUPDATED Targovishte Judge Arrested for Bribery

A judge from Targovishte is accused of bribery, he was detained for 72 hours, the deputy city prosecutor of Sofia, Hristo Krastev, said at a briefing.

Witness interviews are pending. On Thursday it will be considered whether to ask the court to permanently detain him. Krastev added that the money was marked.

BTA reported earlier that the detention took place on Tuesday night. The judge's name is Miroslav Mitev.

Pre-trial proceedings have been initiated for a judge of the Targovishte District Court to have requested and accepted a benefit of BGN 5,000, in his capacity as a judge-reporter, in order to carry out acts in his official capacity, namely to reduce a prison sentence, the Sofia Prosecution Office said Wednesday. The proceedings were initiated by drawing up a protocol for the first investigative action - search and seizure of a car. In the space between the two front seats was found the sum of BGN 5,000, which was added to the case as material evidence. Witnesses were questioned.

After analyzing the evidence, the Prosecutor concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe the magistrate had committed the corruption offence and was therefore charged as accused. In view of the high public danger of the act, a measure of procedural detention for up to 72 hours was ordered.