Three witnesses have testified in Sofia City Court at the trial of former Varna mayor Ivan Portnih and three co-defendants, accused of fraud over the rebuilding of a fishing port that does not exist.

Standing trial alongside Portnih are former regional governor Stoyan Pasev and two officials from the Bulgarian Maritime Administration Executive Agency. Prosecutors say the four forged official documents and submitted false data to obtain 3.4 million euros from EU funds and the state budget. The money was meant to upgrade the infrastructure of a supposed fishing port on the outskirts of Varna, with Varna council as the recipient of the funds.

The court heard from Rositsa Popova, Lozana Vasileva and Ivan Dobrev.

Popova said she joined the project through the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, since the port project belonged to the academy, and it was with the academy that she signed her contract. The contract set out her rights and duties, she said, and no one influenced her when it was drawn up and signed. She told the court she first looked at ports along the southern Black Sea coast, then the northern coast, since such projects are rare in Bulgaria and a survey comes first in any project. Her work did not stop once the project was drawn up — she also had tasks during construction.

From 2009 to 2013, Lozana Vasileva was deputy executive director, then director, of the State Fund Agriculture. In 2013 she became deputy agriculture minister. She told the court that as deputy minister she held the powers of head of the managing authority for the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries directorate and signed contracts in that field. Once a contract was agreed, the State Fund Agriculture took over the project and handled the payments. Vasileva confirmed she approved the port project herself, acting as deputy minister.

The third witness, Ivan Dobrev, said his job was to draw up the detailed development plan for the port, marking out the site's boundaries and access. He also carried out a land survey but was not asked to look at the pier itself, only the land. Dobrev said the plan does not set out what a site can be used for, so nothing stopped a detailed development plan for a port being drawn up on land designated as a beach.