Bulgaria Court Gives Green Light to High-profile Borilski Case

Young Bulgarians protest outside the main Court building in downtown Sofia against the not guilty verdict of the Veliko Turnovo Appellate Court in the Borilski murder case. Photo by BGNES

The Veliko Tarnovo Appellate Court accepted Tuesday the dual court and medical expertise in the high-profile Borilski case.

The move ends the court investigation in the case. The next trial is scheduled for February 4, when the prosecutors in both the State and private trials are expected to enter their pleas and the defense council will present their case, Darik radio reports.

The latest postponement was requested by the attorneys of the defendants, who asked for more time to examine the double expertise.

On Monday, the lawyers for the two defendants, Georgi Zheliazkov and Stoyan Stoichkov aka Barona (the Baron) asked the experts numerous questions regarding the sequence of the blows inflicted on Borilski, and if the traces on the victim's clothes correspond to the knife wounds.

After the hearing, the magistrates decided to accept the expertise with the motive its conclusions are competent, well-founded and include answers to all questions.

The Tuesday trial was held behind closed doors over the presence of classified information.

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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