New Controversies Emerge in Bulgaria's Belneyski Murder Case

Crime | February 15, 2011, Tuesday // 11:30|  views

Lazar Kolev, 30, is the only defendant in the brutal murder case of two teenage sisters five years ago. Photo by BNGES

The Pazardzhik Regional Court is to interrogate about 15 witnesses Tuesday in the trial of Bulgaria's high-profile "Belneyski" murder case.

Sisters Rositsa (18) and Kristina (15) Belneyski went missing in January 2006, after leaving a disco bar in the town of Pazardzhik. The sisters were found dead at the beginning of February near the town of Peshtera.

The shepherd who found the bodies of the girls is among those who will take the witness stand.

The defense counsel is asking for a new expert analysis of the videoclip showing two girls, dressed in ski outfits, in the area of the "St. Konstantin" site. Eyewitness say the girls were Rositsa and Kristina.

Marin Markovski, attorney for the only defendant in the case, Lazar Kolev, 30, says if the clip was made by a cell phone, it will have a date on it, and if the girls were at the site on a date different that January 28, 2006, the case must be dismissed.

The magistrates will also hear the testimony of experts who have worked on DNA analyses. The conclusions of the DNA analyses date from 2006 and 2009 and have been executed by the Bulgarian Forensic Institute, an FBI lab in the US, and an Austrian lab. The DNA sample - material taken from the girls nails showed a match with Kolev.

The trial is to officially close Tuesday, but Markovski says it would drag on for many months to come.

Meanwhile, Todor Todorov, the Head of the Psychology Institute of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, and expert in the case, told the Bulgarian National Television, BNT, Kolev, most likely, had an accomplice, a man of high standings in society.

Todorov explained the psychological analysis had shown it would be very difficult to control two victims at once, adding the murder was not premeditated, but was done after the rape as a cover-up.

"This makes us believe that a man who had a lot to lose if his name is tangled in a sexual crime had been an accomplice," the expert pointed out.

Last week Kolev's mother voiced her belief the perpetrator of the murders is named Atanas, and he is the son of the of former Bulgarian Deputy Minister, Georgi Petarneychev.

Todorov also told how the defendant had tried to cheat the lie detector by giving wrong answers to direct questions.

Kolev had failed 2 lie detectors tests already - one in 2009, and one just days ago.
The expert said he was certain the Court will issue a guilty verdict.


Tags: Lazar Kolev, Murder, Plovdiv, court, Pazardzhik, sisters, Belneyski, Gramadite, autopsy, coroner, Marin Markovski, DNA, DNA analysis, lie detector

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