France Unwavering in Trying Bulgaria Borilski Murder Case

French Ambassador to Bulgaria, Etienne de Poncins, denies media reports and claims of the defense lawyers in the Borilski case that France had pressured the magistrates to issue a guilty verdict. Photo by BGNES

The parallel trial in the high-profile Borislki case will begin in France in the absence of the two defendants – Georgi Zhelyazkov and Stoyan Stoychkov.

The news was reported Wednesday by the French Ambassador to Bulgaria, Etienne de Poncins, cited by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

On February 4, Zhelyazkov and Stoichkov were sentenced by the Veliko Tarnovo Appellate Court to 19 and 17 years in prison, respectively, for the savage murder of Bulgarian Sorbonne student Martin Borilski in Paris in 2000.

After the verdict, the magistrates changed their bail to detention, but the Court ruled in the absence of the defendants, which their lawyer explained with a traffic problem. The two disappeared after the trial and there whereabouts remain unknown. On Saturday, the police in the Black Sea city of Varna issued a State-wide arrest warrant for both.

The reporting Judge in Bulgaria's high-profile Borilski murder case rejected Tuesday the request of one of the defendants' lawyers to change his client's detention to a different measure as inadmissible.

The French Ambassador informs the trial in Paris will start in the spring of 2010, adding the two defendants have tried in vain many different ways to delay the trail's beginning.

De Poncins denies media reports and claims of Zhelyazkov's and Stoychkov's lawyers that France had pressured the magistrates to issue a guilty verdict, but said the trail had been monitored closely by the French and the EU.

The Ambassador reiterated his satisfaction from the verdict and the way the Bulgarian judicial system is now functioning.

“What was very important for France is that the thorough and professional investigation of the French police was taken into account and the verdict was issued on the base of clear and solid evidence,” De Poncins said.

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.

Zheliazkov, who is the son of a prominent Varna lawyer, and 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 the French Ambassador, 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.

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