Stoycho Stoev, one of the two suspects for the notorious murder of a young girl in the Bulgarian city of Pernik, was murdered by police officers, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee NGO believes.

The NGO does not subscribe to the official version that Stoev committed suicide during a police search in his apartment.

"On a number of occasions, Bulgarian police officers have taken the lives of apprehended individuals, presenting their deaths as suicide," the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee has pointed out in a statement.

The suspect for the murder of 17-year-old Miroslava Nikola allegedly shot himself dead last Thursday.

However, the NGO has listed a number of suspicious circumstances, including the media reports that the suicide was carried out with a policeman's gun, as well as the statement on behalf of the victim's sister that police officers may have been involved in her abduction.

Miroslava Nikolova's dead body was found by the police in the suburbs of the city about 11 am on Thursday after two months of active search, which involved the information systems of Schengen and Interpol.

On Sunday, Pernik citizens staged a protest with demands for justice and punishment of the perpetrators of the murder of the local teen girl.

The parents of the girl, her classmates, friends, mothers of other murdered children, all gathered in front of the police precinct building in the city, saying they harbored strong doubts that the killers will be punished.

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