Court remands undertaker and loan shark accused of murdering 49-year-old Kiril Rusev

The court on January 9 remanded Petar Alexandrov and Alexander Kinov, who were accused of the murder of 49-year-old Kiril Rusev.

According to the court, there is a reasonable assumption that the two committed the murder. There is insufficient evidence of the second crime – kidnapping.

Petar Alexandrov, the loan shark, and Alexander Kinov, the undertaker, are charged with the murder of Kiril Rusev, the debtor. The moneylender Petar Alexandrov, is the son of former Finance Minister Stoyan Alexandrov (1992-1994) He and his accomplice were arrested after a not well calculated small detail in the whole plan to cover up the crime. The victim was 49-year-old Kirill Rusev, who owed more than $300,000, lent to him most likely by the deceased minister. (the father of Petar Alexandrov).

The crime was committed on January 4, and the two accused were brought to court today, January 9.

Murder near Sofia: The perpetrators kidnapped and tortured the victim

From the evidence gathered so far, it appears that Rusev was killed with two gunshots. Alexandrov and Kinov then tried to cover up the murder by staging Rusev leaving the country and even preparing the cremation of his body. Thus, no corpse, no crime.

However, they made mistakes, and the investigators quickly fell into their trail. Otherwise, the history of the debt turned out to be long. Kirill Rusev had taken the sum of 306, 000 US dollars from former Finance Minister Stoyan Alexandrov back in 2008. He had to pay it back in one year, and the contract was between the companies of the two - the debtor Rusev and the creditor Alexandrov. So far, however, the money has not been returned and the penalty interest has doubled the amount. Disputes over the money continue after the death of Stoyan Alexandrovdrov, but now between Kiril Rusev and the successor of the former finance minister - Petar Alexandrov. This is how it came to the fatal 4 January.

The 49-year-old man who was killed near Sofia, Kiril Rusev, was first kidnapped and tortured, it became clear from a joint briefing of the Prosecutor's office and the police on January 8. On January 6, the man's body was discovered in a morgue with forged documents after relatives reported him missing the previous day.

On 4 January, between 14.30 and 16.00, the victim, 49-year-old Kiril Rusev, was invited to the home of one of the two accused of the murder, Petar Alexandrov and Alexander Kinov.

"Where the examination shows that the person was tortured, tied up and subsequently most likely his death was caused by the two gunshot wounds," said Lyubomir Nikolov, director of Sofia Directorate of the Ministry of Interior.

Kirill Rusev was killed with two shots, one in the torso and the other in the leg. Immediately afterwards, Alexandrov and Kinov took the victim's body to a chamber of a private morgue with which Kinov, who is an undertaker by profession, had a contract.

"The same person had even tried to cremate the person by means of an inauthentic death certificate presented to the funeral agency," says Lyubomir Nikolov.

Kinov and Alexandrov then began to build their alibi. They went to Serbia through the Strezimirovtsi border crossing. Alexandrov crossed the border with his own ID documents, but Kinov left Bulgaria with Kiril Rusev's identity card.

"We requested a counter-check from the authorities in Serbia, who promptly provided us with information, and it was found that the second perpetrator of the act, at entry to the Republic of Serbia, the document of the murdered person was hidden and the persons presented themselves with the personal documents of their identity," said Mihail Naumov, head of the Homicide Department at the National Police.

Alexandrov and Kinov carried the murdered Rusev's phone and sent several text messages from it to his relatives. They then left the phone in Serbia. After about an hour they returned to Bulgaria.

"And we managed to locate the murder victim's phone," said Mihail Naumov, head of the Homicide Unit.

Several weapons were found during the searches of the homes of the two suspects. A forensic examination will tell which of them was used in the murder. The most probable motive, according to the investigators, is a debt of over 300,000 BGN, which the murdered Kiril Rusev owed to Petar Alexandrov.

"The accused Alexandrov was engaged in banking activity, i.e. lending sums of money for interest to persons who were in financial difficulties and accepting relevant funds from them in exchange for a pledge," says Lyubomir Nikolov.

The victim, Kiril Rusev, owned a restaurant in Sofia and had no criminal record. Petar Aleksnadrov also has no previous criminal record. Alexander Kinov's criminal record includes illegal possession of weapons and explosives, robbery and theft.

Investigators are checking how Alexander Kinov left the country with the ID documents of the murdered Kiril Rusev. Allegedly, there are no similarities in the physical appearance between the victim Rusev and the suspect Kinov that could mislead the Border Police officers. An investigation is being carried out into the actions of the officer who allowed Kinov to leave the country with Rusev's identity card, as well as the entire shift at the border crossing that was on duty at the time. Two hypotheses can be assumed - negligence or wrongdoing.