The accused in the car arson attacks in Sofia on September 9 remains in custody. The Sofia City Court imposed the most severe preventive measure at the hearing today - – “detention in custody“.
The prosecutor's office indicated that from the evidence collected so far, a reasonable assumption can be made that the accused committed the crime.
The defense requested house arrest because the accused is his mother's personal assistant. According to the lawyer, the mother could not live without her son's assistance.
The accused has been assigned a legal counsel, who said after the hearing that he will appeal the detention order, BTA reported.
Earlier this week, the spokesman for the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office (SGP), Prosecutor Nikolay Nikolaev, explained that the cars were set on fire so that the perpetrators could extort insurance companies. They wanted 500,000 euros from them, otherwise they would set fire to cars every 10 days. He added that the extortion itself did not come to fruition, but that such an act was being prepared after these arsons.
The director of the Sofia Directorate of Internal Affairs (SDVR), Nikolay Peltekov, said a few days ago that a man was detained near one of the arsons, in whose car were found canisters of flammable liquid, prepared for further arsons. It was established that he was not guilty of the arsons themselves, but only took the cans from the people who committed them, Peltekov explained.