[ad_1]
In connection with numerous investigations by the Bulgarian and foreign media and after the permission of the supervising prosecutors under art. 198 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office provides information on the preliminary proceedings initiated for an attempted murder of three Bulgarian citizens: Emilian Gebrev, Hristo Gebrev and Valentin Tahchiev, the PRB press center announced.
Three Russian citizens were charged in the pre-trial process: Georgi Gorshkov, born 1977, Sergey Pavlov, born 1982, and Sergey Fedotov, born 1973. for the crimes committed by them under art. 116, paragraph 1, item 4, item 3, item 6, item 1, paragraph 1, item 9, supra art. 115, supra art. 20, para 2, supra para. 1, supra art. 18, paragraph 1 of the Penal Code, on 01/21/2020. It was established for the three who on 02/15/2015 entered the territory of Bulgaria through Sofia Airport with three different flights. In the course of the investigation, numerous inspections of hotel rooms used by the defendants were carried out. The hotel managers and employees were questioned. Inspections were also carried out on a two-room apartment located in the capital, for which there is data that it was used by Gorshkov and Fedotov. Inspections were carried out in the parking lot, where there is evidence that the crime was committed. The cars that the defendants used to rent during their stay in the country have also been identified.
At the request of the SGP, the three Russian citizens have been declared internationally wanted by Interpol with a red ballot. In view of the additional information gathered, all three use people’s identities as follows: for Georgi Gorshkov – Egor Gordienko; for Sergey Pavlov – Sergey Lyutenko; For Sergey Fedotov – Denis Sergeev, the SGP has taken steps to complement and update the European arrest warrants already issued, as well as international search requests for arrest and subsequent extradition. Steps have also been taken to supplement and update the information already sent to the Schengen Information System and IOC-Interpol. Despite these procedural actions, there is an obstacle to the transfer of people to the Bulgarian authorities, as there is a legal regulation that prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens from the territory of the Russian Federation to another country.
In the course of the investigation, the SGP also verified the possible participation of other people, including other nationalities, who were accomplices in the crime committed, but no data was established in this regard. At the same time, there are four other assassination attempts against Emilian Gebrev, all of which preceded the specific investigation. Two of these attempts were made outside Bulgaria, but Gebrev did not state that they were carried out.
In the course of the pre-trial proceedings, the Bulgarian side has repeatedly initiated the exchange of information with foreign partners, incl. data on identical poisoning cases carried out in the territory of other countries.
Allegations that the Bulgarian side has failed to take steps to seek the assistance of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are definitely not true. In its written response, the OPCW stated that a new analysis of the samples taken from the three victims was not necessary and that this would set a precedent in its practice. In addition, the Finnish laboratory Verifin, where the technical knowledge involved in the research was prepared, has been certified by the OPCW itself. Verifin’s expert opinion provides very clear information on the type of substance used in the assassination attempt. During the pre-trial process, 15 medical and biological examinations were carried out on various samples of the wounded and the elements with which they had contact to establish the substance used for the poisoning. The NICC-Ministry of the Interior established that the substance used for the act was PHOSPHORUS-ORGANIC COMPOUND-PYRÍFOS CHLORINE. This conclusion was confirmed by the director of the Finnish Institute of Verification of the Convention on Chemical Weapons “Verifin” at the University of Helsinki, that is to say, that again it is a PHOSPHORO-ORGANIC COMPOUND – diethylphosphonate / deposits /, both substances are derivatives.
It definitely does not correspond to the truth and another statement, namely that the pre-trial process was terminated. At the moment, all the possible actions of the investigation have been carried out in the territory of the country. The supervisory prosecutors, the investigative bodies and structures of the SDVR, the Ministry of the Interior and the State Agency for National Security have made exceptional efforts to collect and verify the evidence related to the evidentiary issue regulated in the Criminal Procedure Code. Requests for international legal assistance have been sent to several countries. Your responses are awaited, and some of them are related to the establishment of the location of the processed persons. In relation to all the above, the only existing legal possibility is to suspend the procedure by reason of art. 199, para. 1 and art. 244, para. 1, point 1 of the PPC, article 25, paragraph 1, point 2 and paragraph 2 of the PPC.
[ad_2]
