Over 250 witnesses were questioned on the charges against Bozhkov

More than 250 witnesses have been questioned on the charge that the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office filed in court against Vasil Bozhkov and nine other people, including his wife, a little earlier today. This was stated by prosecutor Angel Kanev at a briefing in the Courthouse, a reporter reported “Focus”.

According to him, the work on the pre-trial proceedings was completed in January. “Within two months, we presented the materials on the investigation of the ten defendants and the teams of their defenders”, specified the magistrate and added that the indictment is over 3,000 pages long.

Kanev is convinced that the collected evidence is suitable and will hold up in court. Regarding some of the defendants, the prosecutor said that two were heads of the former Commission on Gambling and one director of a directorate and one expert in the commission.

“The total damage caused by the committed acts – official crimes – is more than BGN 550 million in unpaid state fees with four commercial companies – gambling operators,” the prosecutor pointed out.

“There are two charges – one for extortion and one for racketeering in relation to several natural persons who are the owners of two commercial companies that were competitors of some of the defendants in the case,” Kanev explained.

According to him, there is also an accusation of bribery in the pre-trial proceedings. It became clear that the state fees collected were several times smaller. The prosecutor admitted that the Naydenov brothers were among the blackmailed persons.

The State Prosecution does not consider that there are currently any grounds to require hearings in the case to be heard behind closed doors. A disposition hearing is expected to be scheduled.