site.btaEfforts against Political Corruption in Bulgaria Aggravated in 2020

July 20 (BTA) - In 2020, problems with the fight against political corruption in Bulgaria worsened, according to an annual monitoring repot of the Anti-Corruption Fund, which monitors allegations of corruption and conflict of interest in the high echelons of power.

The low efficiency of criminal prosecution of high-echelon corruption observed in the previous report aggravated further. The report states that the new sentences have ended only in acquittals, resulting in a balance of 13 acquittals and three convictions.

According to the analysis there isn't a single case of corruption which has been penalized by a custodial sentence and between 2018 and 2020 there was not a single conviction.

The majority of senior officials are brought to court over conduct which the courts deem that it does not constitute a crime. Eleven out of 14 convictions in the 45 cases that were monitored are because the court established there was no constitution of a crime. The indictment often is based on interpretative application of criminal law or absurd logical constructs, the analysis concludes.

The authors underscore the formal approach to corruption or airing instances of corruption in the media. RI/PP

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