The relatives of the murdered 18-year-old Magdalena Ruseva demanded 1.8 million euros in blood money from her classmate Ivan Kostov, whose case started today in the Haskovo District Court, BTA reports. The grieving family insists on the harshest punishment provided by law, with the victim's mother entering the courthouse with a portrait of her daughter.
Ivan Kostov stands in the dock for a crime committed on April 26, 2025. At the time, he and the victim were close friends and classmates at a local high school.
On the fatal evening, the young men were in the company of another boy at the defendant's grandfather's house on "Timok" Street. After the third participant left, Magdalena and Ivan were left alone. According to the state prosecution, the girl was strangled with a noose made from the elastic band on the bottom of a tracksuit. To cover his tracks, the perpetrator threw her clothes in a garbage container and hid the body in a can in an uninhabited property on the neighboring "Amur" Street, where it was discovered on April 30 of that year.
During today's pretrial hearing, the magistrates rejected the defense's request to impose a lighter measure of detention on the defendant, and he remains permanently behind bars. Even during his initial detention in May last year, the court ruled that, despite being a minor at the time of the act, Kostov understood the nature and significance of his actions.
A total of 42 witnesses have been called in the case. The trial will continue with eyewitness questioning on June 3.