Bulgarian Appeals Court Delays Hearings in Radical Islam Case

A Bulgarian court of appeal on Tuesday granted a defence request to postpone hearings in the case of 13 Bulgarian Muslim clerics sentenced for preaching radical Islam.

The lawyers of the defendants have asked the Appeals Court in the city of Plovdiv, in southern Bulgaria, to allow new evidence, according to BGNES news outlet.

The court and the prosecutor will decide in a closed door session what additional evidence to allow to be considered.

The defence also asked the court to hear university teachers as well as the board of Allah al Islami foundation with whom the defendants had allegedly met.

The correct translation of religious texts in Arabic into Bulgarian found during searches at places of worship and the imams’ homes was also disputed by the defence which requested a new translation.

The Plovdiv Appeals Court is expected to set a date for its next session in the case within a week.   

The lower court in the city of Pazardzhik had found the 13 defendants guilty of preaching anti-democratic ideas and sentenced one of them, imam Ahmed Musa Ahmed, to a prison term.

The court also issued two suspended sentences. Fines were imposed on 10 of the defendants.

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