Balgarianovinite.com The Sofia City Prosecution Office (SCPO) has submitted an indictment against Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev to the Sofia City Court, the prosecution service said in a press release on Thursday.
The court will presently schedule a preliminary hearing in the case.
Kotsev will stand trial together with four co-defendants: municipal councillors Yordan Kateliev and Nikolay Stefanov, the Mayor’s chief of staff Antoaneta Petrova, and company co-owner Ivaylo Marinov. According to the indictment, between July 2024 and the end of May 2025, in Varna (on the Black Sea) and in Sofia, the five conspired to commit bribery and coercion in order to obtain an economic benefit.
The prosecution service said that an unnamed sitting member of Parliament was also involved in the criminal conspiracy. Later in the day, the SCPO specified that the MP in question has not been constituted as an accused party and no charge has been brought against him. The lawmaker is under investigation in a separate pre-trial proceeding.
Kotsev, Stefanov, Kataliev and Petrova are indicted for asking sundry amounts of money in order to influence public officials in making decisions as part of their work. Kotsev is implicated in three such acts, and the benefit he allegedly demanded approximated BGN 370,000. Stefanov allegedly committed one act, asking for nearly BGN 230,000, and Petrova was allegedly involved in one act and asked for an economic benefit of nearly BGN 118,000.
Separately, Kotsev and Petrova are indicted for demanding nearly BGN 118,000 from businessman Trayan Georgiev in order to exert influence on Varna Deputy Mayor Plamen Kitipov when making a decision on issuing an order to approve a detailed spatial-development plan for regulation and building development and a working spatial-development plan for a particular regulated lot.
In late May 2025, Kotsev and Stefanov allegedly asked BGN 21,000 from businessman Ivelin Ivanov in order to exert influence on Kitipov when making a decision on issuing an order to approve a detailed spatial-development plan for regulation and building development for particular properties in connection with the merger of three lots.
Kotsev and Stefanov are also indicted for attempting, on September 15, 2024 in Varna, to force company executive director Plamenka Dimitrova to transfer half of the public procurement contracts awarded to her company by Varna Municipality to a company owned by Marinov, threatening that if she failed to do so, they would take over her business. Dimitrova did not comply and alerted the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Kotsev is further indicted for attempting, between November 2023 and March 2024, to force Bilyana Yakova, head of the Varna Integrated Urban Transport Project, which is implemented under a grant scheme, to draw up a request for a capital transfer of over BGN 3 million leva from an account held by Varna Municipality to a company called Gradski Transport. Kotsev allegedly threatened to dismiss Yakova unless she complied with his verbal order. She did not draw the request and was released on April 14, 2024.
The pre-trial investigation was conducted by the Anti-Corruption Commission and was guided and supervised by the SCPO. This investigation was concluded at the end of March.
Kotsev was arrested on July 8 and has since been in custody despite repeated attempts by his defence lawyers to have him released pending trial. Of the rest of the accused, Marinov was set free back in July, and Kateliev and Stefanov have been under house arrest since early October. Varna Mayor Kotsev Indicted, to Stand Trial with Four Co-Defendants 2025 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2025-11-13 17:42:00 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
