Body of a murdered man found in a sewer manhole in downtown Sofia

The Prosecutor's office on August 14 gave more information about the brutal murder in Sofia, which was revealed on Saturday. Two people have been arrested.

The man arrested for the murder of a man in Sofia has been detained for 72 hours by order of the Prosecutor's office, the court has yet to decide whether to remand him in custody. This was announced at a briefing by the Prosecutor's office, which was attended by the Head of Sofia City Prosecutor’s office, Iliana Kirilova; Deputy Head of Sofia City Prosecutor’s office, Hristo Krastev and Ivo Iliev, Director of the Sofia Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, Lyubomir Nikolov and Deputy Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Zhivko Kotsev.

Once again we are witnessing an atrocity, a human life has been taken in a particularly painful way. The Government has urgently taken 15 measures to respond to the violence in our society. The prosecutors of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, as well as the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office, are not fans of the style of western genre movies, Sofia city prosecutor Iliana Kirilova said.

"What we think is right is to make it clear in the mind of the perpetrator that he will be punished, that is, not the amount of punishment, but that there will be a fair trial in the course of which sufficient evidence will be collected," Kirilova said.

Deputy city prosecutor Hristo Krastev said that two people had been detained and charges have been pressed.

"The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office is leading the investigation into a murder, as the initial pre-trial proceedings were for a kidnapping on 11 August. A relative of the murdered man has been questioned and told investigating authorities that he had not had contact with him since the evening of 8 August and was worried that something had happened. From the evidence gathered it was concluded that a person with the surname Valchinov was the perpetrator of the murder. He has been charged with murder committed in a particularly cruel manner. For such crimes, the law provides for penalty of 15 to 20 years of imprisonment, life imprisonment or life imprisonment without commutation," explained Hristo Krastev, deputy chief of Sofia city Prosecutor’s office.

The murder was committed on August 8th.. The supervising prosecutor ordered a 72-hour detention order for the arrested man.

"As a result of the investigative actions, the Ministry of Internal Affairs authorities have reached a second person who is connected with the serious criminal offence. This person assisted the perpetrator to cover the traces of the murder. This person is not an accomplice or an aider and abettor of the perpetrator of the murder because he did not participate in the execution of the act. The person found out about the murder after the crime was committed and, as a friend of the murderer, decided to help him erase the traces," said Ivo Iliev, deputy city prosecutor.

Investigators have established that the person was killed with a heavy blunt object by a blow to the back of the head. The object resembled a dumbbell.

The Deputy Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior Zhivko Kotsev explained that the prosecutor's office managed to establish not only the identity of the perpetrator of the act, but also to collect sufficient evidence.

The director of the SDMoI, Lyubomir Nikolov, said that on Thursday, a person came to the police and presented himself as a cousin of the missing man. He reported him as missing, as a result of which the law enforcement authorities established that he was murdered.

"One of the phones he used was found near a car dealership in Sofia. We immediately took action and versions to establish his routes. From the immediate action, we found that he and another person, who we subsequently identified, walked together and entered a place and then only the other person who owned the place came out. This led us to check the version of possible involvement in a serious criminal offence of the owner of the apartment where these two persons last entered," he explained.

The head of Sofia police added that after leaving the apartment, the person went back to the address several times, went to suspicious places and we consequently proceeded to operational work with him.

"When we were almost convinced that this person was the perpetrator of the act, we proceeded to operational actions," Nikolov added.

The perpetrator met with another person, which led law enforcement authorities to conclude that the other person may have been acting as an accomplice to the perpetrator. The police believe that the perpetrator of the act is a debtor of the murdered person.

The remains of the man's body were discovered in a manhole in the city centre after a tip-off from residents of the block. According to investigators, the murder was committed elsewhere on Tuesday, August 8. A 41-year-old man was circulated as wanted at the time.

Two men have been detained - one on suspicion of committing the crime and the other for concealment. The investigation into the murder has been taken over by the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office. The leading versions and motives for the brutal crime are expected to be revealed today.