The Court reduced the sentence of Evelyn Banev-Brando to 10 and a half prison

The Sofia City Court (Sofia City Court) ruled on the request of the convicted in three countries Evelyn Banev -Brando and decided to serve in Bulgaria his penalties by ordering him a common sentence of 10 and a half years in prison, from which he would be deducted for nearly 2 years – one who spent in an Italian prison and another in Bulgaria. If he works in prison and has good behavior, after a few years he may request conditional early release.

Banev participated in today’s video conferencing meeting from the Sofia Central Prison, where he surprisingly surrenders in the summer of 2024. At the moment, he has sentenced in three countries and the hearing was at his request to recognize his sentences in the three countries, uniting them and ordered him to serve his sentences in Bulgaria.

In Bulgaria he was sentenced to 6 years in prison In 2018, he was condemned that between October 17, 2002 and May 30, 2005, in the territory of Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, the British Virgin Islands, Switzerland and Austria, he participated in an organized criminal group created for financial operations with funds he knew were acquired through drug trafficking. Banev’s sentence came into force on April 26, 2018, when the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office immediately ordered him to be detained and prison. He was also banned from leaving the country. After it has been established that he does not reside at the known addresses and his whereabouts in the country is unknown, Banev has been declared consistently as local, nationwide and international search.

Brando’s lawyer Silvia Naydenova demanded that his Romanian sentence be recognized in Bulgaria, and Italian only partly. The defense claims that with the sentence of magistrates in Milan, he was brought to court for three crimes – involvement in an organized criminal group, drug trafficking and attempted drug trafficking stated by the prosecutor. However, his sentence was for a crime, for which he received 20 years in prison under an initial strict regime.

For drug trafficking and drug trafficking, lawyer Naydenova explained that in the case of Banev in Italy, there were no facts accepted to indicate that the drugs had crossed the state border so that the court could qualify them as traffic.

« It is for these two crimes – traffic and trafficking experience, a provision must be implemented according to which the request of another country is rejected when the crime is committed outside its territory. These acts have been committed in international waters between Spain and Portugal and the Italian court is not competent to pronounce a sentence. » According to the court, however, the sentence of the Italian court cannot be revised and changed as it has entered into force and the Bulgarian court is not competent to rule on the crimes.

However, the court upheld another request for the defense – the punishment for Banev’s participation in an organized criminal group in Italy be reduced. The reason for the reduced punishment is that at the time of committing the crime – in 2002, the Bulgarian legislation did not provide for a punishment for participation in an organized criminal group for the purpose of drug trafficking or for a useful purpose. At that time, the text provided only punishment for his participation in an organized criminal group, the size at that time was between 3 and 10 years in prison.

« No one can be tried for acts who have not been criminalized at the time of their execution, » the defense stressed and asked the punishment to be deducted and the time he spent in custody – nearly a year.

During the meeting, Banev said only that he adhered to what his lawyer stated and did not add anything to his defense.

The prosecutor’s office demanded that Banev’s verdict be fully recognized and its size not to be reduced, and he served his sentence under the initial strict regime in Bulgaria. The court decided to acknowledge the sentences and unite them by reducing the sentence determined by the court in Milan, since at that time in Bulgaria such a crime was not criminalized.

According to the Bulgarian legislation, the sentences are not served one after the other and do not « accumulate », but only one is served – the worst received. In this case, the court decided to set a final sentence of 10 and a half years in prison, from which the time of his preliminary detention would be deducted.