Associated Press

Five men went on trial Wednesday on charges related to the killing of former Prime Minister Andrey Lukanov.

Ukrainian Alexander Rusov is charged with murder in the shooting of Lukanov in front of his Sofia home Oct. 2, 1996. Alexei Kichatov, also a
Ukrainian national, is charged with complicity to murder, by allegedly providing Rusov with a gun. Ukraine extradited both men on Bulgaria's request last year.

Also charged with complicity are Bulgarian building entrepreneur Angel Vasilev, his nephew, Georgi Georgiev, and Yurii Lenev, a former employee of Vasilev. Vasilev is accused of ordering the assassination, and the two others of hiring the assassin.

If found guilty, all five may be sentenced to life in prison without parole. All have pleaded innocent.

Vasilev was extradited to Bulgaria last year from the Czech Republic. He left Bulgaria in 1998 after his company ran up a dlrs 5.6 million debt to a local bank that later went bankrupt.
That company was part of the large Orion group, known to be run by Lukanov's foes within his party.

Lukanov's son, Karlo Lukanov, told reporters those who really ordered his father's killing "are not in the courtroom."

He suggested that people close to Zhan Videnov, a Socialist who was then prime minister were most probably behind the assassination.

Lukanov, once a member of the Moscow-trained Bulgarian communist elite, served as government head for the Socialist Party from 1989 to 1990. At the time of the slaying he was a lawmaker for his party.

Shortly after Lukanov's death, his close friends were quoted by Bulgarian media as saying he had compromising documents about Orion. They offered no specifics.

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