Sofia District Court decided late Monday evening that the five men who were charged with organizing and executing the murder of controversial Bulgarian figure Yuri Galev must be kept under arrest.

Petar “the Chieftain” Stoyanov, Yanko Popov aka Tutsi, Georgi Petkov aka Damchi, Vasil Kostov and Metodi Ivanov were detained Friday during a special police operation codenamed “the Killers”, which targeted an organized crime group engaged in paid killings.

Monday the five had formal charges filed against them by the Sofia Prosecutor's Office.

All of the accused except for Petkov, who is charged with actually shooting Galev, filed through their lawyers documents stating that they have serious medical problems and should be let out of arrest. This is common practice in Bulgarian court proceedings.

The Sofia Court decided that the evidence presented by the defense is not sufficient to release the defendants. The Court also revealed that it has good enough reasons to believe the men were actually guilty.

It became clear that the five came under incrimination on the basis of records from mobile phone operators which showed that they were in the deserted area between Samokov and Borovets, near the village of Beli Iskar, where and when Yuri Galev was murdered.

The defendants have the right to appeal.