Bulgaria fights its conmen

In what was Bulgaria's biggest trial so far over embezzled EU funding a court sentenced the principal defendant Mario Nikolov to 12 years in prison on Wednesday. It found him guilty of embezzling 7.5 million euros in EU money by forging documents. A hopeful sign for the country, writes the daily Monitor, which has close ties to the government: "Tired of the games the defendant played throughout this major trial, all of Bulgarian society had longed for the judgement that came yesterday. The average citizen who slaves away for sums Nikolov would spend without blinking wants to see that justice does indeed exist in this country. That there are judges who can't be bought and who pass judgement with a clean conscience and their heads held high. Yesterday's judgement has shown that our judicial system is on the way to reform. Bulgarian and European taxpayers can see it with their own eyes."

» full article (external link, Bulgarian)
More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Tax Policy, » Europe, » Bulgaria