The Burgas District Court ruled Monday to keep former judge, and now private law enforcement officer, Galin Kosotv, under permanent detention.

Kostov, 38, was arrested Sunday as a suspect for ordering the murder of Bulgarian businessman Stoyan Stoyanov.

Kostov told the magistrates the police was pressuring the court through the media and claimed innocence, adding Neno Stoyanov and Atanas Kolev – the two men he and his accomplice Stanislav Mihaylov (a former top civil servant) – allegedly hired to organize the kidnapping and murder of Stoyan Stoyanov – were his former clients from back in the days when he worked as a lawyer.

Kostov's defense council argued that there isn't any direct evidence linking their client to the crime and the implications stem from witness accounts of another murder suspect, Stoyan Petrov, who based them on a story he heart from the alleged physical perpetrator of the murder, Manol Handziev. Handziev was killed last August.

The Prosecutor requested permanent detention over the extreme cruelty of the crime and the likeliness Kostov might hide or leave the country.

The defense attorney told reporters all evidence was leading in another direction, but no one wanted to investigate it.

“Why did the victim's mother transfer his shares just less than a month after he disappeared? Why did someone want to adopt his child? No one can manage the assets of a missing person for six months after his or her disappearance. The owner of the construction company “Graniti” has been dismissed by the company's board and his partner requested adoption proceedings,” the attorney said.

The measure can be appealed in a 7-day period before the Burgas Appellate Court.

Details on the murder of Stoyan Stoyanov are available HERE.

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