Key Witness Refuses to Testify against Top Bulgarian Crime Bosses

Krasimir Marinov, aka The Big Marguin is among the six men charged with plotting three gangland murders. Photo by BGNES

Ivo Ilchev, a protected witness, has refused to back the accusations against top Bulgarian crime bosses known as the Marguin Brothers, who are charged with plotting three murders.

“I don’t know any of the defendants and I have never met any of them,” Ilchev told the Sofia City Court as he was hidden behind a screen from the rest of the people in the courtroom.

Krasimir Marinov, aka the Big Marguin, and Nikolay Marinov, aka the Little Marguin, (known together as the Marguin Brothers), and four other men are charged with plotting three murders including the one of controversial radio and TV host Bobi Tsankov who was killed on January 5, 2010, in Sofia.

The protected witness said he knew Tsankov, and that together with him, he visited the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office at one point.

He declared that he had not been threatened by anyone, and that he was currently unemployed. “I just lie around at home,” he replied when asked about his occupation. Ilchev’s entire interrogation lasted ten minutes.

The Marguin Brothers together with Veselin Toshev, Stefan Rangelov, Ivo Karageorgiev, and Biser Iliev are charged with plotting the murders of Bobi Tsankov, Nikola Damyanov, and Ivan Todorov, aka The Doctor (a large-scale mafia boss specialized at international cigarettes contraband), and of General Lyuben Gotsev (who survived the attempt on his life).

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