Murder Defendant Flees Bulgaria, Victims' Mums Cry Foul

Crime | April 23, 2012, Monday // 09:18
Bulgaria: Murder Defendant Flees Bulgaria, Victims' Mums Cry Foul 26-year-old Iliyan Todorov was charged with double homicide in the murders of 21-year-old Kiril Vazharov, who was a national ice hockey player, and 24-year-old Vasil Alexandrov. Photo by BGNES

The defendant in a high-profile double murder trial has fled abroad, the parents of the young victims alarmed, fearing their fight for justice is doomed.

26-year-old Iliyan Todorov was charged with double homicide in the murders of 21-year-old Kiril Vazharov, who was a national ice hockey player, and 24-year-old Vasil Alexandrov.

The two allegedly got involved in a fight between two groups of drunken young people in front of "Solo" club in downtown Sofia on April 18, 2009.

Both men were stabbed in the back while trying to get away from the fight. A third man, Kiril Dimitrov, has also been seriously injured.

At the end of last year a first-instance court surprisingly acquitted Iliyan Todorov despite a number of evidence proving his guilt.

Now the parents of the victims say they had warned back then that he may try to escape abroad and make meaningless their efforts to seek justice in the court of appeals.

The desperate mothers and fathers also claim political links have helped the murderer get away unpunished.

"Iliyan's father is a high-profile member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in the town of Pernik. We have information he had close ties with former President Georgi Parvanov," the parents told Nova TV channel.

The Sofia City Court issued at the end of last year a not-guilty verdict for Iliyan Todorov on double homicide charges, stemming from an incident in the spring of 2009.

The police never established the reasons for the fight, but followed a lead where Todorov hid the knife, with which he allegedly stabbed the victims, in the bag of his friend.

The magistrates ruled that the knife in question had not been the knife used during the fight and the one inflicting the deadly wounds. They based the rule on two medical expert reports, and pointed out that there is no evidence, even indirect one, proving Todorov was the perpetrator.

The Court cited video evidence showing the defendant, clearly identified in a white shirt, getting in a taxi cab, and not in the middle of a knife fight.

Prosecutor have asked for life with parole.

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Tags: Sofia City Court, Iliyan Todorov, murders, Solo club, double homicide

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