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Nikolay Stefanov loaned BGN 500. a lawyer, urged him to ask for a bribe
Ruse’s judge Nikolay Stefanov, who was arrested, charged, tried and acquitted of a 500 BGN bribe, will receive 150,000 BGN in compensation from the prosecution. This is the rest of the complicated case, and the decision of the Sofia City Court can be appealed. The judge demanded 300,000 BGN in compensation for non-pecuniary damages during the 3 years that he was accused and charged, but his colleagues in Sofia only sentenced the prosecution to half.
In fact, the “bribe” of BGN 500 was neither requested nor accepted, and Judge Nikolay Stefanov loaned the same amount to lawyer Svilen Stefanov a few months earlier and insisted that it be returned to him. They are both the main characters in this story. The others are Ruse District Attorney Georgi Georgiev, SANS employees, the mother of a robbery defendant defended by lawyer Svilen Stefanov and several other Ruse magistrates.
It all started on February 5, 2015. Then, Ruse’s forensic scientists revealed the theft of a child, committed the day before. It turns out that the perpetrators are his cousin and two other friends, all minors. Although under 18, the victim’s cousin has already been convicted of another robbery. So they were in custody. On February 9, the boy’s mother went to the Prosecutor’s Office to seek information about what was happening to the boy. He found the supervising prosecutor, who explained that he would submit a request for his arrest, but there is also the possibility of a settlement if the 35 BGN are returned to the stolen child. Minutes later, through her acquaintance, the mother contacted lawyer Svilen Stefanov, a former prosecutor who left the system after being sanctioned by the Supreme Council of the Judiciary for a drunkenness scandal in 2008..
During the mother’s conversation with the lawyer Svilen Stefanov, it turned out that she was in the Palace of Justice. They saw each other and agreed to protect the child. He asked about his criminal record and, at the same time, the investigating police denounced the materials collected on the prosecutor’s case. Lawyer Svilen Stefanov was already waiting in front of the prosecutor’s office with a proposed settlement with his client. The prosecutor offered a 1-year suspended sentence and placement in a boarding school. However, lawyer Stefanov requested parole for the duration of the suspended sentence. The client’s mother insisted that the child not be in prison or an educational school. In the end, they agreed that the inmate would not leave the house at night and would be monitored with an electronic bracelet. The supervising prosecutor then expressed his personal opinion that with these parameters of the agreement there would be no problem if the case fell to the judge on duty at that time, but he was not optimistic that it would happen if it were assigned to Nikolay Stefanov. “Lately, he’s been drooling a lot with the prosecution and unreasonably returning cases,” the prosecutor said according to witnesses to the conversation. Later, lawyer Svilen Stefanov promised to speak to the troubled judge and ask him if he would approve a settlement with similar parameters.
He called him on the phone and the judge said he knew nothing about the case and whether he would be assigned to him.
At noon, the thief’s mother and lawyer Stefanov met in a restaurant near the Palace of Justice. They agreed on the fee: BGN 500, of which BGN 350 was delivered immediately. He said that he had prepared an agreement and that if the prosecutor and the judge agreed, the son would be released. He then returned to the prosecutor’s office and signed the document, which was presented to the office for approval by a judge. This happened around 3pm on February 9. Meanwhile, Svilen Stefanov took over the defense of another of the accused boys for the same amount.
At the time, Judge Nikolay Stefanov was in the courtroom and heard the cases as scheduled. Between meetings, he went to his office. He saw Svilen Stefanov in the hall, waiting in front of the prosecutor’s office. He came over and said, “Abe, Nikolai, these prosecutors are talking to you a lot …” The shooting surprised the judge and asked for details, but his lawyer told him he would do it later.
Judge Stefanov has not gotten along with District Attorney Georgi Georgiev since he was in the district attorney’s office. According to Nikolai Stefanov, Georgiev called him on the phone to ask why he had not approved a settlement or why he had returned the case. Furthermore, some time ago Georgiev transformed a police investigation into an investigative case involving Nikolai Stefanov. The investigation was based on a complaint from his neighbors against him for stealing tiles. Stefanov was even questioned as a witness and, in the end, the process ended because there were no missing elements of the ceiling.
At around 4.15 p.m. the same day, Judge Stefanov called the lawyer with the same last name to find out details of the rumors in the hall that the prosecution talked a lot about him. He was convinced that, as a former prosecutor, Stefanov was well aware that he had not returned cases without reason. In a meeting outside the courtroom, his attorney explained that he could not be specific, but that the tile case was likely to be reopened. Judge Stefanov was angry and insisted that the lawyer tell him who was saying these things. During this conversation, the magistrate reminded the lawyer of the 500 BGN that he had given him in May 2014.
According to the explanations of Nikolay Stefanov, he did it out of regret, because Svilen Stefanov did not have a very nice appearance and claimed that his client constantly harassed him and wanted to return BGN 1,000 of the paid fee, and his relatives refused to pay him that fee. quantity. Nikolai Stefanov claims that twice before he had reminded the lawyer to return to duty because he had promised to do so in a month and a half or two, but this never happened. At the February 9 meeting, Svilen Stefanov assured him that he would pay off his debt because he had clients and expected to pay fees. At the separation, the lawyer asked if the judge had heard the case for the settlement, but the latter did not know. During this time, the case had already been assigned to Nikolay Stefanov and was scheduled for 5 p.m. Shortly before that, Svilen Stefanov met with his client’s mother and her friend, who had known him for a long time. He explained that there was a new judge in the case who wanted BGN 1000. It later became clear that there would be no change of rapporteur. Some time ago, as a prosecutor, he investigated his mother’s girlfriend, and later, as a lawyer, he defended her and got to know each other well. It was she who doubted his words, because on another occasion she asked for money on the pretext that it was for someone from the judiciary, and then she spent it on eating and drinking in pubs.
The mother of the accused of the robbery was worried, she began to explain that she did not have that much money, but that she would do everything possible to find him, just so that her son would not go to jail. Svilen Stefanov then sent her to the Palace of Justice to wait for the trial to begin. Nikolay Stefanov approved the suspension of sentence agreement with the prohibition of going out at night.
Two days later, on February 12, the judge began looking for the lawyer by phone, but did not respond. He got in touch with a colleague whom he knew were friends and were constantly together. He asked him if he knew why Svilen Stefanov was not answering the phone and that he had promised to tell him something. The lawyer’s colleague delivered the message.
Late at night, shortly after 9 pm, lawyer Svilen Stefanov contacted District Attorney Georgi Georgiev by phone. He said he wanted to denounce corruption in the judiciary. Georgiev first thought he was a prosecutor or investigator and offered to meet immediately, but Stefanov explained that he could wait until morning. I wanted to speak in person.
The next morning, the attorney was already at the district attorney’s office. Shaking and worried, he said he was being blackmailed for money. He explained that he had defended a defendant accused of theft, of the agreement, of the concerns of the supervising prosecutor if the case went to Nikolay Stefanov, how he had contacted the judge, who told him that there were no formal obstacles to the suspension agreed, but your client has already been convicted. “I will approve of this punishment, but won’t you take it for granted?” Nikolay Stefanov asked. Then the lawyer said that he agreed to eat after the trial, to go somewhere, to eat and drink, but the judge replied with a smile that he did not mean that and asked him if they did not give him at least 1,000 BGN. He said that his client was a minor, lived alone with his mother, who received a small salary, and that even his fees had not been paid in full, the judge told him that in this situation he would not schedule the case for that day, But do consider the next one as long as you have time to raise the money.
The lawyer replied that they could not collect that amount before 14 days and guaranteed that she would give her 1,000 BGN, if necessary, of her personal money. Then, according to the lawyer’s story to the district attorney, Nikolay Stefanov agreed and scheduled the case for consideration. He then said that for the next few days the judge called him on the phone, but did not pick him up, and then began calling other colleagues to arrange the money. He then told the district attorney that it was unlikely that people would collect the money and hand it over to Nikolay Stefanov for the work done, because the deal had been approved and their problem had been resolved. He said that you must give them, otherwise your clients will receive severe penalties. Finally, Svilen Stefanov said that he could no longer work like this and that he wanted to send an official signal and even took it to the recipient of the District Attorney’s Office. However, Georgiev explained that he had internal rules and according to them, the inspection of signals against magistrates was carried out by SANS.
On the same day, Georgiev put the lawyer in contact with the officers. Svilen Stefanov prepared the signal for SANS, the president was notified and gave the go-ahead for action. Although he claimed BGN 1,000 on his down payment, lawyer Stefanov gave only BGN 500 to mark because he had that amount. They arranged a meeting for February 14 and SANS agents controlled everything closely. The lawyer got into the judge’s car. The plan was there to give him the BGN 500 marked envelope. However, while he was still inside, the SANS employee yelled “Stop! DANCE! “Svilen Stefanov got out of the car and only the judge remained inside. He was handcuffed. However, the money was not delivered. Nikolai Stefanov was on the sidewalk for some time. Poems were also called. They heard the detainee yelling at the lawyer: ‘Traitor Silk, what did you do? You betrayed me! Where’s the money! ” He reiterated that Svilen Stefanov owed him 500 BGN over several months, so there is witness testimony in the case, and that he had drowned him. The next day, Svilen Stefanov brought the envelope with the marked money to SANS for demarcation. There is no evidence in the event that he carried them with him during the action. It was not clear why they were 500, given that the amount requested was 1,000 for work already done.
The judge is accused of trying to accept a bribe through abuse of power. He was taken to the Sofia detention center. Ten days later, the Court of Appeal released him with bail of BGN 1,000, the same amount that the lawyer claimed had been blackmailed. The Municipal Court of Sofia in the first instance sanctioned the judge conditionally and with deprivation of the right to practice law for 3 years, however, the second completely acquitted him and the decision was finally confirmed by the SCC in 2018 against the prosecution by Non-pecuniary damages, estimated at BGN 300,000.
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