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© Nadezhda Chipeva, Capital
Today, the Varna Court of Appeal partially changed the decision of the Varna District Court, which granted the request for parole of Georgi Zhelyazkov, convicted of the murder of student Martin Borilski in Paris in 2000.
The first instance judgment established a trial period of 5 years, 1 month and 25 days and a trial period of 2 years. The Court of Appeals modified the law on the duration of the probationary period and established 5 years, 1 month and 9 days, as well as the part of the sentence not fulfilled at the time of sentencing, the court’s press center announced. The duration of the probation supervision measure has been increased to 3 years.
The case is being examined by the Varna Court of Appeal for the second time this year.
His request for parole was granted by the Varna District Court on January 15 this year, but a month later the Appeal Court overturned this decision. On October 20, the Varna District Court again accepted his request for early release. Today’s judgment of the Varna Court of Appeal, which confirms it, is final and cannot be appealed.
© Personal archive
Martin Borilski, assassinated in 2000 in Paris.
On July 21, 2000, the French police found Martin Borilski dead in his apartment on Le Courbet street in Paris. Examination revealed that his hands were tied with a sweater under his arms and 93 stab wounds and traces of foreign saliva on his body. Borilski had his nose and jaw broken and his pants pockets removed as after a search.
Zhelyazkov was sentenced in 2010 by the Veliko Tarnovo Appeal Court to 19 years in prison and the other defendant, Stoyan Stoichkov, to 17 years. Both were found guilty of the murder of the Bulgarian student Martin Borilski. In February last year, Stoyan Stoichkov was released on probation.
On March 13, 2017, Zhelyazkov was transferred to the dormitory of the open-type prison in Varna. Meanwhile, while in prison, he married and had a son.
According to the provisions of the Penal Code, to be released on parole, a convicted person must have served at least half of the sentence and have presented proof of correction. In this case, Georgi Zhelyazkov has endured more than the required part. However, the prosecution believes there is insufficient convincing evidence for the 41-year-old man’s correction.
To rule today, the Varna Court of Appeals discussed the arguments in the protest of the prosecutor’s office, the objections against it, the evidence in the case and evaluated the legality and justification of the first instance ruling. The court panel reported that in recent months Zhelyazkov’s sentence had been rescheduled with an individual plan, according to the deficit zones established in his behavior. The corrective work carried out has paid off, the Varna District Court reported, and has led to “a reshaping of the prisoners’ value system, in accordance with the rules of morals, good manners and the law.” The court accepted as founded and true the findings of the District Court that the punishment had already fulfilled its objectives and that all the prerequisites existed for the resocialization of the convicted person.
The long and noisy process
In 2000, the assassinated Borilski was 24 years old and had just finished a master’s degree in commercial law in France. At the time of the murder, he was an intern at one of the largest law firms in Paris and an assistant at the Sorbonne.
© BTA
Georgi Zhelyazkov (left in the photo) and his father Borislav Zhelyazkov (behind him). Stock Photo
Georgi Zhelyazkov and Stoyan Stoichkov were accused of killing Borilski, and the trial that followed, which lasted ten years, turned into one of the most shameful and deafening failures of the Bulgarian justice since 1989.
All about the “Borilski Case” – here.
For the “strange things” that are involved in the case – here.
After almost 10 years of delay, missing evidence in the case, collected by the investigative bodies in France, challenge of entire panels of courts in Varna and Shumen, the intervention of the then French ambassador in Bulgaria Etienne de Poncins and even a warning for start a parallel trial in France. The sentences against Zhelyazkov and his accomplice Stoichkov were handed down on February 5, 2010. They were imprisoned for 19 and 17 years, respectively. During the criminal proceedings against Georgi Zhelyazkov in 2000-2010, all the judges of the Varna Judicial District resigned due to official and personal relationships with the father of the defendant Borislav Zhelyazkov, one of the most influential lawyers in Varna.
He is a former deputy director of the Varna investigation. After 1989 he left the system and together with his boss Pavel Dimitrov (former member of the Supreme Judicial Council, former leader of the GERB – Varna and former agent of State Security) founded a law firm.
On January 31 this year, Stoyan Stoichkov was released from Varna prison 5 years and 24 days before the full term of his sentence expired. Now the same thing is about to happen to Georgi Zhelyazkov.
