At a press conference at BTA, organized by Nikolay Popov, the father of the deceased Siyana, the leading lecturer at the Technical University, Assoc. Prof. Hristo Uzunov, stated that he was pressured by Prof. Karapetkov – an expert witness in the case.
This happened in another case, then Karapetkov was also an expert witness at first instance, and the defendant's lawyer was Yavor Notev - the situation is identical to the "Siyana" case.
These are the main doubts of the child's father Nikolay Popov.
Auto expert Assoc. Prof. Hristo Uzunov stated that he himself was pressured by the same expert witness – to change expert opinions on traffic accidents.
„There was, however, a case where I was pressured to prepare an expert opinion that would be a continuation of what was given at the first instance“, he shared.
After he refused, pressure began against him to be removed as an expert - by Karapetkov.
Nikolai Popov requested the establishment of an institute for experts at the Ministry of Justice, which would control their work.
„He is a hidden judge, he puts pressure on other experts and I can only guess how many other experts there are on whom he has put pressure“, concluded Assoc. Prof. Hristo Uzunov.
Lawyer Todor Batkov called Karapetkov “The Stalin of automotive experts“ because of his "authoritarian methods and the pressure he exerts on the system".
He asked him if he sees the devil in the mirror when he looks in it.
We call for thinking about changing the system so that there is a random distribution of experts, just as there is a random distribution of judges in cases, in order to avoid any suspicion of corruption and external influence, said attorney Todor Batkov from the European Center for Transport Policies during the press conference.
Justice is the basis of the social contract. When the state cannot provide justice, it cannot dispense justice and the things that are currently happening in the country happen and we read about them every day - beaten, stabbed children, shot parents, killed in accidents. Total social collapse. One of the big reasons is precisely the lack of a sense of justice, commented Todor Batkov. “In the case of traffic accidents, we have a literal organized criminal group, consisting of experts, lawyers, witnesses, specialists, who are for sale and there is bidding by both the perpetrator and the relatives of the injured or the victim. Whoever gives more, that's where the expertise goes“, he said. This system at the moment, where there is no random distribution, and each investigator chooses which expert and which expert to work with, cannot lead to anything good, commented attorney Batkov.
"After the death of my child, along with all the outrages, I also came across the problem with experts and not only with the auto-technical expertise, but in general, said Nikolay Popov. Some time ago we revealed scandalous details surrounding the "Siyana" case - the expert on it is connected to a legal entity, they teach together in the same department and everything leads to the appearance that they are quite close, which is scandalous for a so-called independent expert on such an important case and a lawyer for an accused, he said. I also claim that the expert opinion on my daughter's case includes traps and it seems entirely in our favor, but in reality it is not. We will reveal this in the courtroom, added Siyana's father.
An expert opinion begins with the inspection report, it contains the information that the expert himself must carefully read and draw up a properly reasoned conclusion, said Assoc. Prof. Hristo Uzunov. The inspection report can contain quite contradictory data. And this comes precisely from the lack of sufficiently good equipment for the measurements that are made at the scene of the event, he pointed out. According to him, this blurring leads to the corresponding opportunities for pressure in a given direction or, respectively, for making incorrect decisions.
Siyana's father said that the foundation will establish a civil association. “The civil association will be aimed at three main areas in society: the judicial system, healthcare, roads and transport. Since these have been the crisis problems of the state for many years. We will continue in this form with public pressure“, he also pointed out.