2025 Court Cases: Kotsev and Barbutov Detentions, Petkov Trial and Major Verdicts in Annual Review 2025

Balgarianovinite.com A series of high-profile criminal cases reached final verdicts in 2025, while the arrest and detention proceedings involving Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev and former Sofia deputy mayor Nikola Barbutov also drew widespread public attention. Kotsev was held from July until late November before being released on bail, while Barbutov was detained in June and later moved to house arrest.
Kotsev was detained on 8 July 2025, and the case was assigned to the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office. On 13 November 2025, the prosecution filed an indictment with the Sofia City Court. Four other defendants were committed for trial alongside Kotsev, in connection with a total of 12 alleged offences. On 19 November 2025, the Supreme Court of Cassation ruled that the case should be heard by Varna Regional Court rather than the Sofia City Court. On 27 November 2025, the Regional Court released Kotsev on bail in the amount of BGN 200,000, and the appellate court subsequently upheld the decision.
The dispute surrounding the case began immediately after Kotsev’s arrest and centered on the actions of the Anti-Corruption Commission. The defendant’s lawyers and relatives alleged that witnesses had been subjected to pressure. Questions were also raised about whether the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office had proper jurisdiction, while prosecutors stated that the case file contained information about an unidentified person with immunity, placing the investigation within their statutory competence. No charges were subsequently brought against a member of parliament.
Kotsev remained in custody from July until late November, as different panels of the Sofia City Court and the Sofia Court of Appeal repeatedly refused for months to alter his pre-trial detention. Public figures, including party representatives, described the mayor’s arrest as politically motivated. The case sparked public anger, leading to protests in Varna and Sofia.
After the indictment was filed and the trial commenced, the judicial panel terminated the proceedings. The panel held that it lacked territorial jurisdiction because all alleged offences were committed in Varna, and no charges had been brought against a person enjoying immunity; accordingly, there was no basis for the case to be heard by the Sofia City Court. Following a request for directions as to the proper forum, the Supreme Court of Cassation ruled that the Varna Regional Court had jurisdiction.
Running in parallel was the investigation into former Sofia deputy mayor Nikola Barbutov, who was detained on June 24, 2025, in an operation by the Anti-Corruption Commission. In the months that followed, politicians and public figures criticised prosecutors and the commission over the way the investigations were being conducted. The two cases became linked because both Kotsev and Barbutov were associated with Continue the Change (CC), and because courts repeatedly refused to release either man from custody.
Barbutov was charged with bribery and participation in an organized criminal group formed to commit official misconduct and bribery offences. As in Kotsev’s case, various court panels kept Barbutov in pre-trial detention for months. On 14 November 2025, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had filed the indictment with the court, and on 26 November 2025, his measure of restraint was changed to house arrest.
Another high-profile case involving a political figure that drew intense media attention in 2025 was the proceedings against former prime minister Kiril Petkov, a former co-chair of Continue the Change. On February 14, 2025, prosecutors filed an indictment with the court. Petkov was accused of exceeding his authority on March 17, 2022, in Sofia, in his capacity as prime minister and a high-ranking public official. The indictment alleges that he instructed the head and deputy head of the Investigation and Methodological Guidance unit within the Investigation Department of the General Directorate of National Police (GDNP), as well as a senior investigating police officer in the department, to take actions contrary to the law. The case relates to the arrests of GERB leader Boyko Borissov, former finance minister Vladislav Goranov, and the party’s PR representative Sevdalina Arnaudova.
On November 19, 2025, the Sofia City Court adjourned Petkov’s trial on misconduct-in-office charges to 2026. The court did so after Petkov’s counsel, Ina Lulcheva, requested access to the full set of pre-trial materials and documents so she could review them before they were incorporated into the case file. Due to their volume, 48 volumes in total, the materials had not been provided to her for the hearing.
In 2025, courts also delivered several rulings in cases that drew strong public interest. In January, the Supreme Court of Cassation refused to reopen the case against Iliyan Todorov, convicted of the double murder outside the Solo Club. The decision was final, and Todorov will serve a life sentence.
In late February, the Sofia Court of Appeal fully upheld the first-instance judgment of the Sofia City Court, which sentenced Orlin Vladimirov and his father, Plamen Vladimirov, to life imprisonment for the 2021 murder of Evgeniya Vladimirova, committed with exceptional cruelty and in a particularly painful manner for the victim. In early December, it became clear that the Supreme Court of Cassation had referred the case back to the Sofia Court of Appeal for a new hearing. The decision was issued with a dissenting opinion from one member of the panel. The panel identified procedural violations by the appellate court.
In May, the Supreme Court of Cassation upheld Georgi Semerdzhiev’s 20-year prison sentence in the case concerning the July 2022 crash on Cherni Vrah Boulevard in Sofia that killed two young women. The proceedings before the Supreme Court of Cassation began in late September 2024 but had to be restarted after a member of the panel died. In November, the Sofia District Court sentenced former police officer Simona Radeva to five years in prison for assisting Semerdzhiev in going into hiding after the crash.
In May, the Sofia City Court acquitted MECh leader and MP Radostin Vasilev of attempting to coerce MP Hristinka Ivanova in June 2022. The ruling is not final and may be appealed by the prosecution. The indictment was filed on July 4, 2024. Prosecutors alleged that Vasilev tried to compel Ivanova of There Is Such a People (TISP) to leave the parliamentary group.
On June 17, 2025, the Supreme Court of Cassation handed Adrian Antonov a final six-year prison sentence for a crash that killed 24-year-old Anna-Maria Malcheva and 23-year-old Yavor Stoyanov. Antonov pleaded guilty to driving at over 100 km/h on the night of May 8, 2023, which resulted in the collision on Slivnitsa Boulevard that struck and killed the two young pedestrians.
The Supreme Court of Cassation sentenced Nacho Panteleev to nine years in prison for the death of Ferario Spasov in a 2023 traffic accident. In its ruling of October 24, 2025, the court upheld the decision of the Veliko Tarnovo Court of Appeal. Panteleev was found guilty of violating traffic regulations on November 11, 2023, by driving at 165 km/h in a zone where the speed limit outside a built-up area was 90 km/h, and causing a collision with a vehicle travelling in the same direction toward Veliko Tarnovo, driven by Spasov, resulting in Spasov’s death.
In early December, a five-judge panel of the Sofia City Court sentenced Dimitar Lyubenov to 18 years in prison over a serious crash on the Sofia Ring Road in September 2022, in which a French citizen was killed and two people were injured. The ruling is not final and may be appealed by both the defence and the prosecution. The court ordered that Lyubenov’s time spent in custody be credited toward the sentence. It also imposed a lifetime driving ban and ordered him to cover the parties’ legal costs. In November, the Sofia City Court acquitted former police officers Lyubka Gecheva and Georgi Malinski, who had been charged with taking a bribe to escort Lyubenov shortly before the crash. 2025 Court Cases: Kotsev and Barbutov Detentions, Petkov Trial and Major Verdicts in Annual Review 2025 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-01-03 10:10:50 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law