Bulgaria Parliament ex-Official Faces Renewed Tax Evasion Trial

Hristo Biserov, Bulgaria's former Deputy Parliament Speaker. File photo, BGNES

Former Deputy Parliament Speaker Hristo Biserov is to appear before court again on Thursday to face charges of tax evasion.

He is also to be tried again for undeclared currency deals and undeclared bank accounts held in Switzerland.

Last year the Sofia City Court found him not guilty, but prosecuting authorities appealed.

A two-year investigation resulted in all three charges being dropped against him.

However, the prosecutor's office said even before the sentence was read that it would refer to the Sofia Court of Appeals.

A separate probe into money laundering was suspended without charges being pressed as it hinged on information from authorities in Switzerland (one they did not provide), where prosecutors alleged he had millions in hidden assets.   

Biserov was a also a Deputy Chair of the liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) and was Parliament Deputy Speaker at the time it was the junior coalition partner in a government with the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

In November 2013, he resigned from the office, left Parliament, renounced all positions he held in the DPS structures, and quit the party without citing any reason.

Pretrial proceedings into tax evasion and money laundering were launched a few days later.

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