SOFIA, June 14 (Reuters) - A Bulgarian court on Monday acquitted two suspected organised crime bosses of charges related to a string of killings, at time when Sofia is under pressure to quell mafia crime to avoid losing EU aid.
Brothers Krasimir and Nikolai Marinov were also found innocent of participating in an organised crime gang.
The Sofia City Court sentenced four other men, who had stood trial together with the Marinov brothers since 2006, to between three and five years in jail for taking part in an armed group that plotted three murders.
Prosecutors, who had sought jail terms of up to 22 years for the Marinovs and the other four, said they would appeal against the acquittals.
"The court agreed there was an organised crime group, it sentenced four people, but it said that the Marinov brothers were not the organisers of that group… We will appeal," Sofia City Prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov told Reuters.
The Marinov trial was scrutinised by the European Union’s Commission, which is assessing Bulgaria’s progress on reforms and is due to publish a report next month.
Failure to show tangible results in combating crime and graft by then may threaten Bulgaria’s access to 11 billion euros in EU aid through 2013 and erode Brussels’ trust in the ability of the centre-right government to carry our reforms.
The cabinet, which came to power last July on pledges to impose strict rule of law, has arrested scores of kidnappers, car thieves, tax fraud schemers, and prosecutors have charged several former ministers with abuse of power.
But verdicts are yet to be delivered and the public still awaits punishment for those who made fortunes illegally, as well as for over 120 contract killings carried out since 2000.
The government has accused the slow, graft-prone judiciary of failing to put criminals behind bars, while judges and lawyers say prosecutors and police need to improve their investigations and collect evidence that can stand up in court.
Diplomats hope recent changes in penal procedures as well as as a planned specialised court on crime and corruption will help Bulgaria’s court system fight graft more effectively and lead to more criminals being put behind bars. The Marinov brothers have also been charged with inciting the killing of a radio show host, who wrote a book on the Bulgarian underworld and revealed his links to gangsters.
Krasimir Marinov himself is further accused of drug distribution and prosecutors plan to press charges against him in court soon, Kokinov said.
