site.btaMilitary Court Leaves Five Suspected Spies in Custody

Sofia, March 22 (BTA) - Following sittings that lasted through
the night to Monday, the Military Court left in custody five
individuals suspected in spying for Russia. One of the group
made a confession and was released on bail on the day of his
arrest.

Five Bulgarian military, both on active duty and former ones,
were detain Thursday on suspicion of passing classified
information to Russia in what the Prosecutor General's
spokesperson, Siika Mileva, described on Friday as a "spy ring".
 
The wife of one of them, who holds Bulgarian and Russian
citizenship, was also arrested in the case.
 
The Court decided to leave in custody the deputy head of the
Defence Ministry Budget Directorate, Col. Petar Petkov. The
suspect's lawyer claimed that his client's detention was
unfounded, because the prosecuting service have not pointed out
the type of information the group was gathering to pass on to
Russia. Only after the documents that were allegedly passed on
are established, can conclusions be drawn about whether they
constitute classified information or not, according to the
lawyer.

The court also left in custody ex-military Ivan Iliev, whose
dual citizen wife, according to the prosecuting service, was the
 connection with the Russian Embassy. The head of Parliament's
classified information registry (also ex-military) Lyubomir
Medarov and another Defence Ministry employee will also remain
in custody.

The court sittings were closed to the media.

Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev expressed in a tweet his
gratitude to the military prosecutors and investigators, who had
 been "working with no sleep since Wednesday".

The court's decisions are not final and an be appealed before
the Military Court of Appeal. NV/MY