Bulgaria's Judicial Council Makes New Controversial Appointment
Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) appointed Thursday Judge Nelly Batanova as Chair of the Shumen District Court.
Stoyan Stoichkov (r) and Georgi Zhelyazkov (l) were convicted of killing Bulgarian Sorbonne student Martin Borilski in Paris in 2000. Photo by BGNES
Georgi Zhelyazkov and Stoyan Stoichkov, the convicted murderers of Bulgarian Sorbonne student Martin Borilski, have turned themselves in to court security officers early Monday.
Zhelyazkov and Stoichkov reportedly arrived at 08:00 Monday in a Varna court and gave themselves up to the security guards. They cam to the court along with their lawyer and the father of one of the perpetrators and have now been escorted to the Varna prison.
A State-wide arrest warrant was issued for Zhelyazkov and Stoichkov, the police in the Black sea capital of Varna reported after they could not be found by the authorities on February 6.
On February 4, Zhelyazkov and Stoichkov were sentenced by the Veliko Tarnovo Appellate Court to 19 and 17 years in prison, respectively, for the savage murder of Bulgarian Sorbonne student Martin Borilski in Paris in 2000.
In the summer of 2000, French firefighters discovered the brutally murdered Martin Borilski in his apartment in Paris. His body was tied down with a sweater, and his skull was broken with a dumbbell. There were 93 stab wounds on his corpse.
Zheliazkov, who is the son of a prominent Varna lawyer, and Stoichkov, were acquitted by the first two Bulgarian trials- in the Shumen District Court and the Veliko Turnovo Appellate Court. However, amidst the pressure of protest rallies and stark remarks on the part of French Ambassador to Bulgaria, Etienne de Poncins, at the beginning of March 2009, Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassations returned the "Borilski" murder case to the Appellate Court in the city of Veliko Tarnovo for retrial.
The Sofia Regional Prosecution Office has formally charged an Italian national over a series of thefts committed at a retail outlet at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport, authorities confirmed on Wednesday.
In Bulgaria's region of Montana, authorities reported another case involving counterfeit euros after a man attempted to pay his water bill with a fake 100-euro note
In Kazanlak, a grocery store owner recently identified a counterfeit 100-euro banknote in circulation. Tihomir Bezlov, chief expert of the Security program at the Center for the Study of Democracy
Bulgarian authorities seized 215 liters of alcohol from a commercial premises in the village of Malo Konare, Pazardzhik region, the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Pazardzhik reported.
A family of pensioners from the village of Lozno in Kyustendil became victims of a robbery after converting 50,000 leva (approximately €25,500) into euros at a local bank.
A counterfeit 500 Euro (BGN 980) banknote was discovered in Pernik after being used to claim winnings at a local casino.
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