FIRST SENTENCE
January 22 saw the first court sentence in a case based on the Asset Forfeiture Act adopted in 2005. A court in Pleven ruled against Valentin Stanev. The court confiscated 1100 sq m of land owned by Stanev, as well as the second floor of his two storey house, the attic, three vehicles worth a combined 28 738 leva and 72 596 leva from Stanev’s bank accounts. The court found that the income of Stanev’s family for the period 1984-2006 was no more than 8000 leva in total, while the family’s spending was 120 000 leva. Over the same period he travelled abroad 37 times and his wife 51 times. In the meantime the Sanevs had registered as unemployed. Besides the Stanev case there are 44 other cases based on the act either in the process of being prosecuted or awaiting trial. The Criminal Asset Forfeiture Commission has frozen assets worth 92 million leva.

TRAFFIC IN 2007
A total of 1006 people died on Bulgaria’s roads and there were 8011 accidents in 2007, according to Traffic Police statistics. A total of 9826 people were injured, of which 1356 were children.
In 2007, 413 886 vehicles were registered for the first time in Bulgaria. In total, 2.6 million vehicles are registered in the police database. The police collected 80 per cent more in fines in 2007 than in 2006, 23.2 million leva. There were 1.056 million traffic violations.
Bulgaria has an estimated population of 7.7 million.

SAFEST IN BULGARIA
The Smolyan region in the Rhodope Mountains was the safest region in Bulgaria in 2007 with the smallest number of reported crimes, according to data from Smolyan police department. Over 2007, Smolyan police registered a total of 703 crimes. Smolyan police has the highest number of crimes solved as well: 78 per cent. The average for the rest of the country was 53 per cent.
Thefts was the most common type of crime committed in Smolyan. In the whole of 2007 just two murders were registered, one attempted murder and one rape. No kidnapping or contract killings were reported.

FINALLY
Human rights lawyer Zdravka Kalaidjieva is the new Bulgarian representative at the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR). On January 23 she was approved for the post by 127 votes in favour by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. She has worked as an advisor to European Integration Minister Gergana Grancharova. The first nominations Bulgaria proposed to the ECHR last spring were rejected on the basis of not meeting basic requirements such as language knowledge.

TAX REVOLUTION
The National Revenue Agency (NRA) has made a revolutionary step towards transparency in administration by removing all glass windows in its public offices. “The measure was part of NRA’s policy of openness and transparency in the work with its clients,” the agency said in a statement. The deadline for submitting tax declarations is April 15.

SOUR
Milk producers from around Bulgaria blocked main roads on January 23 protesting against the policy of Agricultural Ministry in the sector and against what they termed insufficient subsidies. Milk producers said that if their call for higher state subsidies was not heeded, they would march on Sofia with their animals next week. Meanwhile, the ministry started paying the first EU subsidies to farmers, worth 155 638 241 leva, which milk producers said was still insufficient. The biggest subsidy allocated to a farmer will be 699 000 leva.

MORE ON SHIELDS
Days after Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov said he would not advise Vice President Angel Marin to pardon UK football fan Michael Shields, the Liverpool Echo (no relation to The Sofia Echo) said that a new UK law could serve as a basis for Shields to be released early from prison in the UK. According to the Liverpool Echo, which since 2005 has been part of a campaign claiming that Shields is innocent, UK justice secretary Jack Straw was considering allowing a lie detector test to be admissible as evidence, based on a clause in the Offender Management Act approved by the UK in 2007. The clause allows the use of lie detector in “special circumstances” as part of an investigation. Until now, neither Bulgaria nor the UK has recognised lie detector tests as court evidence. A Bulgarian court sentenced Shields to 15 years of imprisonment for attacking Bulgarian Martin Georgiev with a stone on the head in 2005.

CHANGE OF PLACE
As of January 18, the opposition group with the most MPs is Bulgarian New Democracy (BND), formed entirely of former members of the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP), a partner in the ruling tripartite coalition. Encho Malev was the 17th MP to leave NMSP and join the newly found BND. As of January 18, the situation in the 240-seat Parliament is that the parties in the governing coalition have a majority of 151 MPs, made up of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (82), NMSP (35) and the Movement for Right and Freedoms (34), while BND has 17 MPs, and Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria 16, the same as Coalition Union of Democratic Forces. Next is the Bulgarian People’s Union with 13 MPs, and last is ultra-nationalist party Ataka with 11 MPs. There are 16 independent MPs. The only parties that have lost MPs since 2005 are NMSP and Ataka, 18 and 10, respectively.

ON THE SPOT
Traffic police officers will now be able to collect fines on the road, Traffic Police head Alexi Stratiev told a news conference on January 22. Traffic police will have a table of road violations and depending on the driving offence, will determine the sum of the fine. An offender would be able to pay the sum immediately to the traffic police without having to wait for a month as has been the case up to now. The new approach is aimed at improving the collection of fines by the police. This is a result of an amendment to the Traffic Act adopted last year. According to Stratiev, there was no way that the new measure would encourage corruption.