A civil claim for compensation to the amount of 200 000 leva, was lodged by Angel Vassilev, who had been acquitted on charges of murder of former Prime Minister Andrei Loukanov, mediapool.bg said.

The first hearing in the trial that the man suspected of ordering the shooting, conducting against the Prosecutor's Office, the National Investigative Service and the Sofia City Court, was held on December 18.

The trial, however, did not begin since the summons for the National Investigative Service had been sent to the address of the Sofia Investigative Service. The Prosecutor's Office demanded that the trial would not be held at the City Court since it was a litigant in the trial, mediapool.bg reported.

Ex socialist Prime Minister Andrei Loukanov was shot in front of his home in Sofia on October 2 1996. Rumours soon began to spread that his murder might have had both political and economic motives, because of his close ties to Russian political and energy interests, which at the time caused disagreements in the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leadership, mediapool.bg reminded.