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The murdered defendant in Bulgaria's high-profile Impudent criminal case, Kiril Kirilov AKA Shkafa (The Commode) had expected to be attacked.
His live-in girlfriend told the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, that Shkafa had been followed in recent days by a black SUV.
The woman says she heard the shots and ran screaming on the balcony. Meanwhile, the victim managed to call her and tell her that he had been shot, asked her to call the police and told her that he loved her. It was reported earlier that the girlfriend was walking home with Kirilov at the time of the attack.
Shkafa, who has a long rap sheet, was shot Saturday into Sunday in front of his apartment building in the Mladost-3 district.
The first bullet apparently hit him in the leg while trying to run away, but attackers caught up with him and finished him off, according to eyewitness reports.
Kirilov was one of the first people to be arrested in the special police operation The Impudent 2 hitting upon an organized crime group specialized in abductions.
Kirilov is aged 38 and has a record of assault and battery, theft and escape from jail.
The trial against the so-called Impudent group, accused of 11 abductions, was nearing its end, with sentences expected April 2. The murder is certainly going to delay its outcome.
The prosecution asked for a total of 153 years behind bars for all defendants. At the beginning of 2011, Kirilov was released from jail on own recognizance.
The Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry, Chief Commissar, Kalin Georgiev, confirmed before the private TV channel bTV that Shkafa had been implicated in several grave crimes, including murder and armed robberies.
In another interview, for TV 7 on Sunday, Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, stated that people should ask Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, and the Chair of the Supreme Court of Cassations, Lazar Gruev, why such crime figure had been set free.
The Bulgarian elite were terrorized for about 2 years by the kidnappers back in 2008-2009, who are believed to have made several million euros from the ransoms.
The high-profile criminal case followed a special police operation entitled "The Impudent", cracking down on the alleged gang which had kidnapped important businessmen and/or their relatives. The operation was carried out in Sofia and in the cities of Veliko Tarnovo and Montana.
A total of 27 people were detained by the police on December 18, 2009.The special operation was conducted jointly by the Interior Ministry, the State National Security Agency DANS and the Prosecutor's Office. At the time, the Interior Ministry announced all had long rap sheets, including robberies and murders.
Among the 9 accused in the trial, Ivaylo Evtimov AKA Yozhi, and Prokopi Prokopiev AKA The Bodybuilder, are charged with racket and with organizing a kidnap gang. Daniel Dimitrov AKA The Relay, Lyubomir Dimitrov AKA The Rower, brothers Radoslav and Mitko Lebeshevski, Pavel Petkov, Kiril Kirilov, and Tsvetozar Slavchev, are all charged as accomplices in a total of 11 high-profile abductions over the last years.
In September, the Sofia City Court started the civil trial of businessman, Angel Bonchev, and his wife Kameliya against the breast cancer foundation Tomorrow for Everyone. Angel Bonchev and his wife, Kameliya, were both abducted for ransom in 2008, allegedly by The Impudent.
One day before Kameliya Boncheva was released, her husband announced he is donating the sum of EUR 157 000 to the Tomorrow for Everyone Foundation. The family insists they were forced to donate the money.
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