Sofia - A Sofia court late Monday sentenced two officials from the Bulgarian road agency for corruption, providing a legal epilogue to one of the scandals which deprived the poorest European Union member state of development funds in 2008.

The court sentenced Lybomir Lilev, the man who was in charge of distributing EU funds, and his subordinate Ivan Vladimirov for demanding a bribe to implement a project.

Lilev received a one-year sentence, suspended to three years and a 5,000-leva (3,250-dollar) fine, while Vladimirov will go to jail for five years and pay 20,000 leva.

The two former officials were arrested in January after demanding 50,000 leva to approve changes to a road construction plan.

The scandal in the Bulgarian Roads' Agency was among the reasons behind an EU decision to suspend hundreds of millions of euros in agricultural and infrastructure development aid to Bulgaria, the bloc's poorest member which joined only a year ago.

Last week the EU's top anti-fraud official, Franz-Hermann Bruener, visited Bulgaria to warn that it must begin convicting corrupt officials and crack down on organized crime with more grit. (dpa)