Prison Sentences Finally Issued in Bulgaria Borilski Murder Case

In the summer of 2000, French firefighters discovered the brutally murdered Bulgarian Sorbonne student, Martin Borilski, in his apartment in Paris. Photo by podpiski.org

A Bulgarian court has sentenced Georgi Zhelyazkov and Stoyan Stoichkov to 19 and 17 years in prison, respectively, for the savage murder of Bulgarian Sorbonne student Martin Borilski in Paris in 2000.

Veliko Turnovo Court of Appeals turned down the prosecutors' request that the two should be given life sentences and ordered that they are arrested immediately.

Zhelyazkov and Stoichkov, who did not attend the court hearing, were also ordered by the court to pay Borilski’s mother 120 000 leva.

The rulings of the court can be appealed within fifteen days. The arrest warrant however is not subject to appeal.

The trial for the killing of 24-year-old Borilski in Paris has been dragging on for 10 years with numerous twists and turns.

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 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.

Marinski and the lawyer for the Borilski family told the magistrates the French authorities have done their probe perfectly and there is irrefutable evidence of the defendants' guilt. They were countered by Zheliazkov's and Stoichkov's lawyer, Ina Lulcheva, who defined the French investigation as sloppy. She says there isn't any proof her clients committed the crime.

The French forensic team found, among other evidence, DNA linked to the two suspects, but Lulcheva says the fact her clients were in Borilski's apartment does not make them killers.

The private attorney, Vladimir Ivanov, claims Zheliazkov's father, a former investigator and now top lawyer from Varna had secured a fake internship document for Borilski, and the suspects wanted money in exchange for the favor.

Zheliazkov and Stoichkov arrived in Paris that summer broke and began harassing Bulgarians living there for funds. They asked about Borilski's whereabouts numerous times, as the French phone company records show, Ivanov pointed out, adding that after Borilski refused to give them money, they killed him. They then fled the apartment, left Paris and 2 years later came up with the story Borilski fell victim of an unknown assailant.

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