[JURIST] A Bulgarian military court on Friday sentenced former intelligence chief Kircho Kirov [official profile] to 10 years in prison for embezzlement. Kirov had served as the head of the National Intelligence Service [official website, in Bulgarian] from 2002 until 2012 and was convicted in 2013 for embezzling 4.7 million leva (2.4 million euros) between 2007 and 2011. During this time he falsified over 1,000 documents to embezzle the money. The sentence [AP report], which also included Kirov having to forfeit half of his property to the government, was the minimum possible sentence for such an offense. Kirov plans to appeal the ruling.

Corruption has been a consistent issue throughout the EU, as the European Commission (EC) [official website] published a report [JURIST report] stating that corruption costs EU member states approximately €120 billion each year. In July Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta was charged [JURIST report] with fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. The charges date back as far as 2007 before he was prime minister and the court has seized property of his pending the outcome of the case. In April a Romanian court sentenced [JURIST report] former Senior Judge Stan Mustata to 10 years and eight months in prison on Friday for granting favorable verdicts to defendants in exchange for money. In July 2014 former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was taken into police custody [JURIST report] for questioning regarding allegations of misuse of influence and illegal campaign financing.