2024-08-04 02:51:40
A panel of the District Court in Stara Zagora did not remand any of the six defendants for possession and trade of cultural and historical values, who were detained during an operation by the General Directorate “Fighting Organized Crime” (GDBOP).
The court imposed “house arrest” for two of the defendants, “cash bail” for three, and the last one was released without bail, the supervising prosecutor Georgi Videv informed BTA after the end of the cases. They took place behind closed doors and separately for each of the accused.
The arrests of persons aged 31 to 69 from Stara Zagora, Maglizh, Simeonovgrad and Galabovo, identified by the state prosecution as an organized criminal group, were announced at a briefing on August 1 of this year. According to the information from the press conference, during the operation, 345 objects with traces of ancient medieval finds were discovered and seized, including 95 coins, 19 statues, as well as 10 metal detectors, with the help of which the persons carried out illegal archaeological activities.
The six have been acting from January of this year until the present moment in an extremely secretive manner, the deputy district prosecutor of Stara Zagora, Georgi Nikolov, said at the briefing. One of them has been convicted, three have not been convicted and two have been rehabilitated, with one having an indictment for participating in an organized criminal group for the same type of crime and for fraud, as well as possession of narcotic substances.
In response to a question from BTA, Videv indicated that the state prosecution will decide whether to protest the court’s rulings after getting acquainted with the motives of the magistrates.