Bulgaria Delays again High-profile Borilski Murder Case

The two defendants in the Borilski murder case, Georgi Zheliazkov (l) and Stoian Stoychkov. Photo by BGNES

The Appellate Court in the city of Veliko Tarnovo postponed once again Monday the so-called Borilski case.

The new session, when the magistrates will examine the legal and medical expertise, is scheduled for January 19 over a request from the defense council, who said their copy of the document was different than the one given to the plaintiffs and the prosecution.

The judge gave all parties a 5-day deadline to examine the expertise and the photographs, but signed the decision with an objection saying the discrepancies were just technical and the parties had plenty of time to study the photographs. The case has been dragging on for 9 years already.

The parties did, however, agree that the trial is to continue behind closed doors over the upcoming examination of documents involving the use of special spying devices.

Only one of the two defendants, Stoyan Stoichkov aka Barona (The Baron) appeared in the courtroom Monday. The attorney for the other one, Georgi Zheliazkov, informed her client was ill with high fever.

A parallel French trial is scheduled to start in the beginning of 2010.

In the summer of 2000, French firefighters discovered the brutally murdered Martin Borilski in his apartment in Paris. His body was tied down with a sweater, and his skull was broken with a dumbbell. There were 93 stabbing wounds on his corpse.

The two alleged killers, Georgi Zheliazkov and Stoyan Stoichkov, were acquitted by the first two Bulgarian instances - the Shumen District Court and the Veliko Turnovo Appellate Court.

Amidst the pressure of protest rallies and stark remarks on the part of French Ambassador to Bulgaria, Etienne de Poncins, in the beginning of March 2009, Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassations returned the "Borilski" murder case to the Appellate Court in the city of Veliko Tarnovo for retrial.

The Supreme Court magistrates based their decision on the lack of motives of the Appellate Court for the "not guilty" verdict. They further pointed out significant violations in the ways evidence has been collected, verified, analyzed and admitted and the fact that the financial state of the alleged perpetrators has not been investigated after July 18, 2000.

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