The case against Adrian Antonov, who hit and killed the fiancés Anna-Maria Malcheva and Yavor Stoyanov on May 8 last year, driving at 106 km/h on the capital's "Slivnitsa" boulevard, began at the second instance in the Sofia Court of Appeal. The defendant's defense argued that there were eight mitigating circumstances. Meanwhile, the defendant has married and is expecting a child. The prosecutor in the case insisted on increasing the sentence imposed by the SGS to 6 years in prison. The subject in "The NOVA News Interview" comments the lawyer of the relatives of Ani and Yavor - Iliya Todorov from the Bulgarian Association of Accident Victims.
„Just as the relatives of the dead want the maximum sentence, the guilty, regardless of whether they admit to being such or not, do not want to lie in prison," said Todorov. According to him, after the accident with Ani and Yavor, the lower threshold of sentences has increased. According to him, the practice in the West is different. "There are countries with a stricter sanctions policy, there are also countries with a lighter one. The point is that we are at the tail end of Europe in terms of traffic safety, respectively in terms of the most deaths and the number of accidents and injuries. Is the answer only to increase the penalties – no. Not only that, but the feeling of impunity must be eradicated, he believes.
Todorov refused to compare the case against Antonov and that against Georgi Semerdzhiev: “I don't want to compare the two cases – the perpetrators are completely different”.
When asked how Adrian Antonov feels about his act, the lawyer of the relatives of Ani and Yavor stated: “It will be difficult for someone to say from the side how he experiences it, only he knows the truth. But there are his actions that ignited passions in the court today.
According to him, the relatives of the deceased asked the accused, if he really repented, why he was in a hurry to get married and lead a family life, which was ahead of the very people whose lives he took.