The Sofia City Court has terminated the case against businessman Vasil Bozhkov for murder and attempted rape, returning it to the prosecutor's office due to serious procedural violations. This was revealed by an investigation by the "24 Chasa" newspaper, published today.
According to Judge Petar Stoitsev, who drafted the ruling, the indictment contains numerous omissions and inaccuracies that deprive the defendant of the opportunity to understand exactly what he is accused of, which limits his right to defense.
This is the second case against Bozhkov to reach court, after the so-called "gambling case". The current case includes charges of attempted rape of the former head of the Gambling Commission, Maria Filipova, who currently heads the Consumer Protection Commission, as well as incitement to three murders - of Yordan Dinov (2012), Manol Velev (2007) and Boyka Stoyanova (2014).
In his ruling, the judge pointed out that the charge of attempted rape did not describe the reasons why the act remained unfinished, which is a mandatory element for such charges.
"The failure to indicate these facts deprived the defendant of the opportunity to learn what crime he was accused of and thus limited his right to defense," the court ruling states.
The court also found similar problems in the charge of incitement to the murder of Yordan Dinov, committed by Nikolay Stankov - Dalgiya. According to the magistrates, the prosecution did not specify whether Bozhkov was an instigator or an accomplice, and the description of the act was laconic and full of contradictions.
The indictment makes it clear that between January 1 and April 4, 2012, Bozhkov met with Stankov in Sofia and incited him to kill Dinov, since the latter competed with his business.
Several initial charges were dropped from the case, including the grenade attack against Alexei Petrov in 2015. The prosecutor's office has also dropped the charge that Bozhkov led an organized crime group for murders.
Initially, Bozhkov's lawyer Slavcho Markov, bodyguard Veselin Baltov, businessman Georgi Bozhkov (Zhoro Tenisa), Alexander Mitkov and Nikolay Stankov (Dulgiya) were also accused in the case, but only Bozhkov and Stankov made it to court.
Among other violations, the court found that relatives of the victims were not notified of the dropped charges, including Mariana Petrova - Alexey Petrov's wife, and his daughter Dilyana.
The case is now being returned to the prosecutor's office, which must eliminate all procedural violations if it wants to continue in court.