Bulgarian prosecutors to request dismissal of ‘Lesovo 2’ customs officers arrested for bribery
Bulgaria’s Prosecutor-General’s office is to request the dismissal of Lesovo border checkpoint customs officers arrested for bribery on November 2, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said on November 18.
The reason for the request is to prevent a repeat of the pattern of customs staff arrested for bribery returning to work at the border.
There has been a succession of arrests of Bulgarian customs officers and Border Police for bribery. Some media reports have indicated that some have been arrested for the same offence more than once.
The November 2 2016 bust at the Lesovo border checkpoint was practically a re-run of one that took place, by coincidence, on precisely the same date two years earlier. Bulgarian media now refer to the 2016 arrests as “Lesovo 2”.
The Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson said that the seven customs officers arrested on November 2 2016 had been released by the court, some under house arrest, some on bail and some without bail.
Prosecutors have filed an application for the confiscation of assets acquired through crime.
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(Photo: Anton Lefterov)
