Specialized Criminal Court

Bulgaria's Specialized Prosecutor's Office pressed charges against 8 customs officers from Kulata border crossing for alleged involvement in a crime group for receiving bribes, the press office of the Appellate specialized prosecutor's office said on 15th of June in relation to the case in which a total of 23 customms officers were detained in a join operation by the Directorate for Combatting

The Specialized Criminal Court has sentenced to four years of imprisonment 20-year-old Ivan Zahariev for training and preparation of possible terrorist attacks, reported BNR.

Once again the Specialized Criminal Court failed to proceed substantively to the case on the blast at the Sarafovo Airport in Burgas in June 2012, when five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian driver were killed, according to BNR.

The postponing was once again due to problems with the summoning procedures of the  victims and heirs of the perished.

Tsenko Chokov, the controversial mayor of Galiche in northwestern Bulgaria, was released on bail by a court on Monday.

Chokov was imposed a bail of 10 000, while the measure ruled for his son, Martin Chokov, was changed from detention to house arrest.

The Specialized Criminal Court on Sunday decided to keep five customs officers working at the agency's Varna unit in custody after they had been indicted on corruption charges.

Earlier last week, 25 customs officers were detained as part of an investigation into a corruption scheme the prosecution says had been underway at port Varna - West.

Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has said the Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank or KTB) failure case will be submitted to the the Specialized Criminal Court in February or March.

Four years after the attack at Sarafovo airport in the Black Sea city of Burgas, the trial for the death of five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver has again been adjourned by the Specialized Criminal Court.

The reason cited are procedural irregularities in the summoning of witnesses, including people who were left wounded in the attack.

The first terrorism trial against migrants in Bulgaria began on Monday, with the Specialized Criminal Court launching a case against three Syrian nationals aged between 22 and 25.

The men were detained in February, while trying to cross illegally into Turkey.

The Specialized Criminal Court has released six tax officers from the northern Bulgarian city of Veliko Tarnovo on bail after they were detained on charges of administrative abuse and bribery.

The sums paid range between BGN 20 000 (EUR 10 000) for a former head of the Veliko Tarnovo branch of the National Revenue Agency (NRA) and five to fifteen thousand for each of the rest.

The Bulgarian authorities have arrested three Syrian nationals trying to sneak into Turkey and charged them with attempting to join the Islamic State group, the Ministry of the Interior said on Monday.