Bulgarian Court Initiates Trial Against Former Defence Minister

Sofia City Court has given the go ahead for one of the trials against former Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev - the case for the MiG-29 fighter aircraft.

Nenchev's lawyer Petar Bozhkov stated that Nenchev is registered as a candidate-deputy and is the leader of a party due to which the trial may not start until the campaign is over.

Nenchev himself pointed out that he does not mind the trial starting and the court took into consideration this statement, as well as the Prosecutor's Office thesis that he was indicted before he was registered in the election ballots.

The court ruled against the defence's demand that the case be referred again to the Prosecutor's Office because of significant procedural violations because such have not been discovered.

The court's sitting began with an interrogation of seven of the witnesses.

President Rumen Radev will give his testimony on the case on April 12.