The man who confessed to the gruesome murder of a 17-year-old girl in Bulgaria two years ago has been sentenced to 25 years in jail.

Mario Lyubenov, charged with kidnapping and murdering Miroslava Nikolova pleaded guilty to all counts on the indictment at the Monday sitting of the Pernik District Court.

Nikolova, 17, from the southwestern Bulgarian town of Pernik, was kidnapped on November 7, 2011 for a ransom which was never received.

Her dead body was discovered 3 months later, on January 12, 2012, on the territory of the village of Planinitsa, Pernik municipality.

n April, the prosecuting authority submitted an indictment against Mario Lyubenov.
He was charged with kidnapping a minor girl, premeditated murder carried out in an exceptionally cruel manner, in order to hide another crime.

One of the suspects, Stoycho Stoev, who took the police to the location where the dead body was found, committed suicide.

Stoev shot himself before the eyes of highly-trained police officers after he got hold of a gun during the search of his apartment.

Mario Lyubenov was arrested after the girl's dead body was discovered and was kept in custody.

He was identified by Stoev as the murderer of the girl.

Lyubenov was arrested on Stoev's testimony, shortly before Stoev shot himself.
According to the prosecuting authority, the two had been planning the murder five months in advance, with no intentions to hide Miroslava somewhere while waiting for the money, but to kill her.

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