Ivan Geshev, the main public prosecutor of Bulgaria, sent a letter to the Administrations of Council of Europe and European Committee of Crime Problems regarding the transfer of Tsvetan Vasilev.
He asks the institutions to help him about difficulties encountered in fulfilling the two requests for extradition of the bulgarian businessman, previously sent to the Serbian authorities.
Geshev points out that the lack of a final decision to return Tsvetan Vasilev to Bulgaria in view of the criminal proceedings against him casts doubt on the implementation of the European Convention with respect to the obligations of the requested Party to give a ruling within a reasonable time.
Nowadays there are almost 5 years and 6 months since the first extradition application was made and 4 years and 8 months after the second one.
Ivan Geshev’s letter is accompanied by a copy to the President of the European Parliament, David Maria Sasoli, and to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. This was done with a view to the future assessment of Serbia’s preparedness to become a member state of the European Union regarding to the law of the country.
There are 90 days (3 months) period for the procedure of pass the wanted persons on to the Government, says Geshev in the letter.
He also sent another document to the High Court in Belgrade, informing them that Tsvetan Vasilev’s extradition requests were still valid.
Geshev expresses his bewilderness by the delay of more than 5 years which took the decision of the magistrates. He emphasizes the fact that this is an unprecedented case.
We remind that Tsvetan Vasilev is accused of draining funds from the bankrupted Corporate Commercial Bank. He is accused of 146 crimes with total cost of 2.5 billion leva.
The case was passed to the Bulgarian Criminal Court on 20 July 2017. All the defendants are 18, the main one is exactly Tsvetan Vasilev.
The ex-banker is accused mainly for setting up and managing an organized criminal group. He stole 2.559.000.000 leva and additional 205.900.000 from the bank’s vault.
Translation: Diana Todorova
