Bulgarian Highway Robber Acquitted of Forgery Charges

Alleged highway robber Evgeni Milev, pictured here after his arrest at December 2009, is to be released unless new accusation is raised against him. Photo by BGNES

Evgeni Milev, aka Geyzo, who is a member of the alleged highway robbery gang “The Crocodiles”, has been acquitted on charges of forging passport seals.

Milev, who is also facing a charges of participating in an armed highway robbery, was cleared Tuesday of the forgery charges by the Sofia District Court, and will be set free form the arrest, unless another accusation is raised against him.

Geyzo was accused of attempting to cross the border from Serbia into Bulgaria at the Kalotina border crossing point on December 19, 2009, with forged seals in his passport showing that he had not been in Bulgaria at the time of the highway robbery he is suspected of.

Geyzo and his brother Emil Milev, aka Crockie, had been wanted by the police in connection with a an armed robbery at the “Trakiya” Highway the night of December 13, 2009, when two armed men opened fire against policemen after they robbed two Turkish citizens by forcing them to pull over.

According to the Court ruling, passport seals in themselves are not official documents.

“Minev was charged with using a document containing false information but he should have been charged by the prosecution under another provision of the Penal Code which envisages a fine of BGN 300 for such a crime,” states the ruling of the Sofia District Court.

It also says there is no conclusive evidence that Milev's passport was forged and any further discussion on whether he might commit another crime is pointless.

In August 2004, Emil Milev and Evgeni Milev were accused of stopping a van on the 'Hemus' Highway in Northern Bulgaria pretending to be policemen, and robbing the four people traveling in it.

In 2007, the Sofia Regional Court acquitted the two brothers of the robbery charges but the Sofia City Court upheld the ruling.

In December 2008, the District Court found Emil Milev - Crockie, Evgeni Milev - Geyzo and their accomplice Kaloyan Batsov guilty of a yet another highway robbery. The court sentenced the men to 12 years in prison on charges that, on June 11, 2004, near the village of Gorno Kamartsi, the three men had stolen goods worth EUR 1 500. However, in October 2009, the Sofia Appellate Court acquitted the defendants.

The names of the two brothers Milevi came to the fore again in December 2009, when the gang of 42-year-old Geyzo and his 44-year-old brother Emil Milev was tackled by the police during a highway robbery of a Turkish citizen in Southern Bulgaria, and one of the its members, Dimitar Mitrev, aka “Bogrovetsa” was killed by a police officer during the shootout.

Milev was arrested on December 19, 2009, at the Kalotina border crossing point, claiming was returning from a trip to Germany where he was during the time of the robbery. The police, however, believe that he forged the seals in his passport and never left the country.

Evgeni Milev's brother Emil is wanted from the Police and his exact location is still unknown. The two brothers are facing a trial over the highway robbery they allegedly committed in December 2009. However, Evgeni Milev was released on bail by the District Court in the town of Slivnitsa on May 17, 2010, as judge Georgi Nikolov decided Geyzo would not hide or commit another crime.

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