Decho was a unique person. I don't know anyone like him. He never smoked, he never drank, there was no one who would say a bad word about him. This was stated by the close friend of the murdered Decho Vassilev Martin Grabchev in the program “In Focus” on Nova TV.
According to him, the two had known each other for nearly 40 years - since first grade, without ever breaking off their relationship. Grabchev said that he was strongly provoked to speak publicly, since Vassilev's name had been slandered from the first days after the tragedy. According to him, Decho was an exceptional professional, ran his own accounting firm and led a completely decent lifestyle. “I know him like the back of my hand. If there was even the slightest bit of illegality, he wouldn't be there”, he said.
Grabchev commented on how Decho Vassilev and the people around him were involved in combating illegal logging and poaching, using drones and surveillance equipment. He explained that Vassilev had invested his personal funds so that they could monitor large perimeters and promptly alert the institutions. “He was proud that they had stopped illegal logging and that wild animals had started to return to the area”, he added.
According to him, there were also threats, including threats of shooting, which Vassilev had shared about months ago, but he never mentioned who they came from. "I warned him that what they were doing was very dangerous. We all know about the so-called timber mafia," he added.
Grabchev believes that what happened was not an accident, but was connected to high-level criminal structures. Decho Vassilev's last words to his mother, according to Grabchev, were that "things have calmed down."