What questions did the prosecutor's office's statement on the "Petrohan-Okolchitsa" case leave unanswered and what new data did it reveal? The state prosecution announced that over the past four years, nearly 300 thousand leva in donations have been received by the non-governmental organization associated with Ivaylo Kalushev, and within the framework of the investigation, bank secrecy was lifted on 44 accounts in order to track the movement of funds, summarized "Nova TV".
NOVA journalist Ivan Kanchev has been following the case from the very beginning. He believes that at yesterday's briefing, extraneous data unrelated to the mechanism of the crime was presented. “I got the impression that a very extensive examination will be done - forensic psychiatric, psychological and sexological. This gives an answer to whether the investigators know what the reason for what happened was. Obviously, at this point, no“, he said.
After the end of the briefing, the prosecutor's office did not give the journalists the opportunity to ask questions. However, if there had been a chance, the NOVA journalist would have returned the tape to the recordings released by the police. “I would have asked whose voice was heard on one of them saying “take a picture, take a picture“. It could be anything, sometimes screen recording programs also record external sounds. I wouldn't speculate where that sound came from," the journalist added.
The mother of Nikolay Zlatkov, found dead in a camper near Okolchitsa, Ralitsa Asenova, asks how, if her son was shot at point-blank range, the projectile would have lodged in the occipital bone. She says she knows this from the forensic doctor.
Regarding the unification of the two pre-trial proceedings - for the murders near the "Petrohan" hut and near Okolchitsa peak, Kanchev pointed out that the prosecutor's office has not given a clear explanation why the cases were initiated in two different areas. "Perhaps the answer is family and local jurisdiction. There have been crimes transferred to the National Investigation Service, so there is such a mechanism. Perhaps the District Prosecutor's Office had the capacity to handle the case and that is why this proceeding was not transferred, and only now has it been merged“, the reporter suggested.
300,000 leva donations to Kalushev's NGO in 4 years, bank secrecy lifted for 44 accounts
Regarding the information provided about donations to officials of the NGO managed by Ivaylo Kalushev, Ivan Kanchev said that there is no ban on such activity: “The emphasis was on the fact that the donation of over 251,000 leva was made to Ivaylo Ivanov's personal account. A lot of data related to the activities of the NACPZ before the crimes were reported.
We recall that yesterday the prosecutor's office announced that it was checking the financing and activities of the non-governmental organization associated with Ivaylo Kalushev, after it was established that large sums of money had been received in the form of donations to it over the past four years. Among the donors are also officials, and in addition to money, items were also provided, including drones. The largest amount transferred to the account of one of the murdered - Ivaylo Ivanov - is about 251 thousand leva“.
As part of the investigation, bank secrecy has been lifted on 44 accounts in order to track the movement of funds. A total of five individuals and seven legal entities are being checked, analyzing whether there is a connection between the donations and the activities of the organization. The investigation also covers the work of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, and additional data is expected from banking institutions.
According to Ivan Kanchev, it is still not clear who these 44 accounts belong to, whether they belong to the six deceased or to donors to the NGO. Against this background, on March 13 at 5:30 p.m., Ralitsa Asenova organized a protest in front of the Courthouse in Sofia, in search of the truth about her son's death.