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Николай Марченко

Николай Марченко е зам.-главен редактор на "Биволъ" от ноември 2022 г. Той е журналист, специализиран в икономически и международни теми. Работил е във в.“Сега“, бизнес портала LiveBiz.bg. Бивш кореспондент в София е на авторитетния руски в.“Коммерсантъ“.

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Martin “Dzhito” Georgiev, who recently turned himself in to the Main Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime (GDBOP, the Bulgarian anti-mafia police – editor’s note) after three years in hiding, will remain in custody, the Special Appellate Criminal Court (SACC) ruled on Tuesday, June 19.

The SACC, thus, confirmed the detention measure imposed on June 2018 by the judge from the Special Court for Serious Organized Crime and Corruption. The ruling cannot be appealed. It was confirmed by the SACC press office as well.

In this case, Martin Georgiev is tried only on one of the six counts dating from January 2015, before he went into hiding abroad. This count pertains to Art. 321. (Paragraph 1) from the Penal Code: “Whoever forms or leads a group set up for the purpose of committing crimes in the country or abroad shall be punished by imprisonment of one to five years”.

Following the initial measure, imposed on June 10, Georgiev’s lawyer, Ivaylo Naydenov, announced that he would appeal the ruling. However, the SACC did not accept the defense counsel’s arguments to change the detention measure to “house arrest”.

Lead Prosecutor Detelina Yotova insisted on keeping the defendant in custody, for, according to the investigation, he could commit a new offense if his detention is mitigated.

“After having conducted an official inspection, the SACC shares the conclusions of the Special Criminal Court that at present there is a reasonable presumption that the defendant has committed the crimes with which he has been charged,” argues the SACC.

The defense counsel argument that Georgiev has never been convicted was also rejected as, according to the testimony of numerous witnesses in his case, he has a serious criminal past.

“The Court considers that there is a danger of committing a crime, regardless of the clean past criminal record of the defendant. It is inferred from the testimony that the Appellate Court perceives as a character description.”

Prosecutors have finally managed to discover Interpol’s notice in the archive

It emerged during the June 10 hearing that the case file had no information on the European arrest warrant and Interpol’s notice despite the fact that Georgiev was on the publically available “wanted list” on the Interpol website.

Judge Adelina Ivanova could not find any subpoenas or Interpol’s red notice. Prosecutor Yotova then promised to apply the relevant documents to the case.

Obviously, the investigation has finally “found” the relevant subpoenas and notices as the SACC now mentioned the availability of “additional documents”.

“This is supported by witness testimonies, the additional case documents presented at today’s hearing, namely that the defendant is wanted with a European arrest warrant with the appropriate accompanying provisions, as well as the severity of the pressed charges,” the SACC said.

In mom’s shadow

The SACC also recalled that the mother of the defendant Mila Georgieva, known in criminal circles as Mila “The Bloody” and Mila “The Universal”, is also a defendant in several cases, including the so-called “The Killers 6”, and is charged with murder, arson and drug trafficking, as well as economic crimes in the case “The Universals”.

Besides by the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office, Mila Georgieva is also being investigated in Romania. There, the National Anticorruption Directorate, DNA, deliberates that in association with other individuals and employees of Bulgaria’s First Investment Bank (FIB), she had stolen EUR 26 million of money for Romania’s poor provided by the European Union.

Bivol’s investigations into this theft can be found here, here and here.

No house arrest for Georgiev; he is “clinically” healthy

At the Special Court for Serious Organized Crime and Corruption hearing on June 10, Georgiev’s lawyer claimed that his client was the father of a minor child, was severely suffering from a brain aneurysm and, in view of this, needed specialized medical care that could not be provided to him in the detention facility.

However, these arguments were also not admitted by the SACC on June 19, because the defense failed to provide new evidence about the defendant’s health: “At the time of the arrest, the defendant M.G. was clinically healthy.”

SACC’s ruling is final and is not subject to appeal, which means that Martin Georgiev will remain in the investigation’s detention facility on 2 “Major Vekilski” Street during the court trial against him for organizing and leading a crime group.

We recall that on June 10, Bivol’s reporter asked lawyer Ivaylo Naydenov to grant our media an interview with Martin Georgiev, but Naydenov firmly refused the request because of the “nonsense” written about his client, including attempted bribery of law enforcement officials in order to avoid detention.

He accused the media of cooperating with parties in the case that aimed at putting Martin “Dzhito” Georgiev “in a role he does not perform”, obviously referring to the “role” of a Sofia drug lord.

By Nikolay Marchenko

Editor: Atanas Tchobanov

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