Former Head of Customs Petya Bankova released from custody on BGN 10,000 bail

The former Director of the Bulgarian Customs Agency, Petya Bankova, has been released on 10,000 BGN bail. The reasonable assumption has not been dropped, but there is no risk that she will commit another crime.

In addition, her health condition has deteriorated. She was detained in early April in the so-called "Customs affair", along with father and son Marin and Stefan Dimitrov for influence peddling, corruption, smuggling and money laundering. Also accused in the affair are former Interior Ministry Secretary General, Zhivko Kotsev, and Nikola Nikolov - Paskal.

Former Head of Bulgarian Customs Agency, Petya Bankova, and Stefan Dimitrov remain in custody

The cash bail was requested by both Petya Bankova's lawyers and the Prosecutor's office itself, arguing that in the last four months out of six, Petya Bankova was mostly in medical institutions and was being treated for a serious oncological disease. The prosecutor in the case himself said that in order for Petya Bankova to receive effective treatment, not only should her freedom not be restricted in the conditions of pre-trial detention, but even placing her under house arrest would interfere with her treatment.

Furthermore, on 10 October she had testified as a defendant and had thus cooperated with the investigation. A fact that was taken into account by the prosecution and by Judge Tony Getev, who ruled on the remand measure.

Images by Dessislava Kuleieva, BNT

Her lawyers insist that from 18 volumes of case file from the beginning of the investigation, when Bankova was detained, until now the investigation materials have grown to 82 volumes.

In court, Petya Bankova said nothing other than that she was joining her lawyers' plea for a lighter measure.

In July, the court authorised a European Arrest Warrant for a fourth defendant, Nikolay Nikolov-Paskal, who was detained in Serbia in late September.

The Prosecutor's office announced that all the documents for the extradition request of Paskal from the Republic of Serbia had already been sent. He was detained in Serbia in late September.