site.btaAppellate Court Leaves Varna Mayor in Custody on Corruption Charges, Triggers Fresh Protests with Calls for Rule of Law

At a hearing that lasted until midnight on Thursday, the Sofia Appellate Court upheld a ruling of a lower instance court that will keep Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev, along with municipal councilors Nikolay Stefanov and Yordan Kateliev in custody on charges of corruption. The ruling triggered fresh protests in solidarity with the Varna Mayor.

The Thursday night hearing lasted more than nine hours.

A fourth co-defendant, businessman Ivaylo Marinov, was released on a recognizance note.

Blagomir Kotsev was arrested late in the night on July 8 after a corruption tipoff by a failed public procurement tenderer to the Counter-Corruption Commission.

Along with municipal councilors Yordan Kateliev and Nikolai Stefanov, and businessman Ivaylo Marinov, he has been charged with participation in an organized criminal group operating in the Varna region from July 2024 to November 19, 2024. The group is accused of engaging in coordinated criminal activities including abuse of office, bribery, and money laundering. The organization, allegedly formed for personal gain, includes public officials. Kotsev, Kateliev, and Stefanov are also charged with attempting to extort a sum equivalent to 15% excluding VAT of 1,523,446 BGN, of the value of a public procurement contract for the delivery of ready meals to schools and kindergartens.

The handling of the case by the judiciary has caused an outrage and accusations of political repressions. Protests were held in Sofia and Varna, and other cities in Bulgaria, as well as in London, Brussels, Berlin and Munich. The Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, of which Continue Change is a part, condemned the growing attack on democratic institutions and the rule of law in Bulgaria, of which they believe the Varna Mayor's arrest is an illustration. The President of the ALDE Party and Member of the European Parliament, Svenja Hahn, wrote a letter to European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael McGrath, raising alarm over what she describes as a "systematic campaign of political pressure" against the Bulgarian opposition party Continue the Change. 

Fresh protests

The late-night court ruling sparked fresh protests on Friday: in Sofia, in Varna, Burgas and Dobrich.

They took place under the slogan "You don't have enough handcuffs for all of us!" and were organized by the opposition Continue the Change party. Kotsev and his two co-defendants are affiliated with Continue the Change. 

In Sofia, people carried posters reading "Down with the prosecutors' mafia!" and "Deliver justice - don't run errands!". Among the ralliers at all locations were MPs and municipal councilors. 

In Kotsev’s home town of Varna, people rallied for the fourth time. The previous three demonstrations were held on July 9, 14, and 16. A petition titled "In Support of Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev and the Rule of Law in Bulgaria" was circulating. Chants of “Mafia” and “Freedom” echoed through the rally.

Speaking to the press in Parliament on Friday, CC-DB Co-Floor Leader Nikolay Denkov said that Kotsev’s detention amounts to repression rather than the pursuit of justice. “The goal is not to deliver justice but to exercise repression,” he said. “After we have had rigged elections, as proven by the Constitutional Court, after there is a prosecution with no control over it, after there are court cases and the imprisonment of political figures and elected officials of Varna, we are now already in a state of dictatorship,” Denkov said. CC-DB Co-Chair Assen Vassilev blamed MRF - New Beginning of trying to seize the entire party system and go after all free people to clear the way to an autocracy.