Bulgaria's top skater Maxim Staviiski claims he asked for an official settlement with the prosecution for causing a deadly crash, unaware the victims' relatives would mind.

"I have not talked to the claimants personally but I had no such information," the sportsman explained in an interview for Nova TV.

"I have just availed myself of the legal right to ask for imposing a suspended sentence on me," he added.

The statement came after the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Burgas rejected Staviiski lawyers' demand of a three-year suspended sentence and five years to be served in probation. The defence proposed also their client's deprivation of a driving licence for a period of three years.

"The defendants in most cases like are being imposed jail sentences," read the motives of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in the seaside city of Burgas.

The magistrates emphasized among the reasons for rejecting the settlement request, was the fact that the families of the crash victims have also declared against it.

"Settlement could be sought at further stages of the case," the prosecutors added.

The magistrates have also turned down the skating champion's demand of litigation of the alcohol tests' results, mentioned in a reviewed bill on the case.

It emerged that Staviiski was driving with 1,29 permilles of alcohol in his blood and not 1,1 permilles as it was written in the original bill.

The papers on the case should be submitted to the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Burgas in a few days. Then a period of 30 days is to be given to the prosecutors to present the bill before the court.
Last week Maxim Staviiski gave his first press conference after the deadly crash.

"I was not influenced by alcohol as I have drunk just a few sips before sitting behind the wheel," Staviiski explained.

"I do not deny I just love fast driving," the skater confessed.

He assured the reporters he has not made any attempt at dealing with the prosecutors on the case.

The hit, between skater Staviiski's Hummer sport utility vehicle and two cars, occurred August 5 on a bridge over the Ropotamo River near Burgas, while the skater was under the influence of alcohol.

Staviiski veered into the opposite lane and bumped headlong into a Honda Civic with four people riding in it. The driver of the Honda Petar Petrov, 24, died in a hospital and one of his passengers - an 18-year-old Manuela Gorsova - was hospitalised in a coma.

The investigation on the case is still under way. The skater has already been officially accused of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated bodily harm, which carry a penalty of three to ten years in prison.

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