site.btaAppellate Court Upholds 3.5 Year Prison Sentence against Former Conflict of Interest Commission Chief

Appellate Court Upholds
3.5 Year Prison Sentence against
Former Conflict of Interest Commission Chief


Sofia, December 23 (BTA) - The Sofia Appellate Court said on
Tuesday it has upheld a 3.5 year prison sentence against former
Conflict of Interest Commission Chairman Filip Zlatanov. The
sentence was first imposed by the Sofia City Court in April
after Zlatanov was found guilty of having mishandled two out of
three controversial conflict-of-interest cases. In addition to
the prison term, Zlatanov was banned from holding a senior
public position for five years.

The Sofia Appellate Court upheld the sentence against Zlatanov
because it found it to be correct, lawful, and fair. But the
judgment was signed with a dissenting opinion by the reporting
judge Ivan Stoichev, who believes that Zlatanov should be
acquitted altogether.

This latest decision is appealable before the Supreme Cassation
Court.

Zlatanov is also under investigation in connection with a
notepad found in his office by law-enforcers, containing
instructions which he apparently received from senior public
officials who were telling him how to manipulate particular
conflict-of-interest cases. This notepad and another one, which
were a key piece of evidence in the case, vanished from the car
of an expert commissioned to do a graphology analysis. LI/VE

/СН/