May 11 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Alfa Finance Holding said on Tuesday that the Appellate Specialised Criminal Court's decision to acquit one of its major shareholders, three employees of its unit Bulbrokers and two ex-government ministers in a case for the sale of a stake in power utility EVN Bulgaria Elektrorazpredelenie has entered into force.
The prosecutor's office had decided not to appeal the decision within the 15-day deadline, which expired on May 5, Alfa Finance Holding said in a statement.
"We went through an absolutely unnecessary court case, which did not seek justice but rather sought to exert pressure in order to suppress the public activity of several public figures. In my case it is a matter of pressure on the critical position of Capital and Dnevnik towards those in power," Ivo Prokopiev, a major shareholder in Alfa Finance Holding and founder and owner of Economedia group - the publisher of newspapers Capital and Dnevnik, said in the statement.
In its decision, the appellate court upheld the decision of the first instance court, saying that the sale of the remaining state-owned stake of 33% in the power utility majority owned by Austrian energy group EVN, had not caused damages to the state and the actions of the six defendants can not be classified as crimes.
The case was launched in 2017 against Ivo Prokopiev, former finance minister Simeon Dyankov, former economy and energy minister Traycho Traykov, and three employees of local investment intermediary Bulbrokers.
The minority stake in EVN Bulgaria Elektrorazpredelenie was privatised in 2011 for over 90 million levs ($56 million/46 million euro) through the sale of the shares on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)