site.btaBourgas Municipal Councilor Charged with Assisting Justice Evasion

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Bourgas Municipal Councilor Charged
with Assisting
Justice Evasion


Sofia, August 14 (BTA) - Bourgas municipal councilor Bencho Benchev has been charged with helping an accused person evade justice and with illegal possession of ammunitions, the prosecution office said Tuesday.

Benchev was arrested in Istanbul on August 2, along with notorious underworld figure Dimiter "Mityo The Eye" Zhelyazkov who was wanted in Bulgaria for running a ring for racketeering and money extortion on the Black Sea coast. Zhelyazkov is still in Istanbul awaiting extradition to Bulgaria.

Prosecutors say that Benchev helped Zhelyazkov escape justice in Greece and Turkey between August 2 and 4.

The municipal councilor was released on a 50,000 leva bail. He is not allowed to leave the country.

Media reports quote Benchev as dismissing all charges as saying that he was innocent. He also said it was "unfortunate coincidence" that Zhelyazkov and himself were staying in the same hotel in Istanbul.

According to media reports, the Istanbul hotel where Zhelyazkov and his company were staying was booked in Benchev's name.

In a recent Bulgarian National Radio interview, Tihomir Bezlov of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, mentioned Benchev as one of the largest land owners in Bulgaria using various schemes to bypass a cap on EU agricultural subsidies that was introduced in 2015 to make sure the support reaches small and mid-sized farmers rather than "the latifundia owners", to use Bezlov's words. RQ/LN


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