NEARLY 300 PEOPLE SENTENCED ON CORRUPTION CHARGES IN BULGARIA- PETKOV

09:05 Fri 30 Mar 2007

Interior Minister Roumen Petkov

Interior Minister Roumen Petkov presented to Cabinet members the report on meeting EU requirements in the sphere of justice and home affairs.

The Interior and Justice ministries worked on the report to be submitted to the European Commission. It addresses issues listed as problematic in the final EC monitoring report before Bulgaria’s EU accession.

Petkov said that he hoped the EC will give adequate evaluation of the progress made.

Over the past six months, prosecution launched investigation on 599 corruption cases. Nearly 300 people have been sentenced on charges of corruption.

Interior Ministry carried out 988 corruption inspections. Among the institutions inspected are five ministries, 47 administrations and 93 municipal offices.

Bulgaria’s plan for combating organised crime was being carried out successfully, Petkov said. The number of crimes steadily decreased. In 2004, 223 public murders were committed and their number went down to 172 in 2006.

Customs officers seized more than 2400 kg of narcotic substances and 565 people were sentenced on charges of trafficking, Petkov said.

Comments

Comments by jon Mills - 09:13 30 Mar 2007
	Who are the individuals found guilty of corruption? Where did they commit the crimes? Who did they work for? If justice is to be done - it must be seen to be done.
Comments by Unhappy Citizen - 10:49 30 Mar 2007
	The Inerior Minister should excuse me but this is total bul****! These are just stupid statistics that were put together in order to make EU beleive that there is action taken against corruption. How come it was never even mentioned in the media about at least any of these prosecutions? And all of a sudden 300 sentenced??? We should finally see some resignations!
Comments by bulgariaron - 12:27 30 Mar 2007
	172 public murders in 2006.It dont say how many were solved and how many convicted.Now and again you hear they arrest someone for some crime but you never hear about them being convicted and sentenced.
Comments by bulgariaron - 12:27 30 Mar 2007
	172 public murders in 2006.It dont say how many were solved and how many convicted.Now and again you hear they arrest someone for some crime but you never hear about them being convicted and sentenced.