Sofia's Court of Appeals ruled on January 31 that two employees of Bulgaria's National Road Infrastructure Fund (NRIF), arrested earlier this month on charges of taking bribes, would remain under arrest, Focus news agency reported.

Lyubomir Lilov, the chief of the department for absorbing EU funds at NRIF, withdrew his appeal earlier in the day, while his subordinate Ivan Vladimirov saw his appeal rejected.

The duo demanded 50 000 leva in bribes and were arrested when the first tranche of 25 000 leva was delivered on January 24. Prosecutors were tipped off by the intended victim of the two grafters.

The incident has prompted the European Commission to freeze its funding for road infrastructure projects "until Bulgaria shows that it can deal with the problems in this area," spokesperson of the European Commission Mark Gray said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

This was the second row to hit NRIF in January, with the fund's chief Vesselin Georgiev accused of nepotism on January 15, when Kapital weekly revealed that the NRIF had given a public procurement contract worth 120 million leva to a company managed by his brother.