A week after the arrest, after which Yavor Georgiev died, only one of the two police officers who were supposed to arrest the 36-year-old man stood in front of NOVA's camera. Today they were called for questioning.
„We were trying to calm him down the whole time, but the next moment the person visibly got even more excited, pushed us away and a struggle ensued, during which, in our attempt to handcuff him, the struggle lasted about ten minutes. I felt him scratching me with a sharp object in the left part of my chest. I thought it was a knife he was trying to stab me with,” explained police officer Svetlozar Dimitrov.
He said he never had a body camera installed, but the patrol car’s video recorder was pointed at the entrance to the gas station. According to his lawyers, there is a recording of everything that happened at the scene.
“We acted according to the law - strictly according to what we were trained to do. Categorically - we did not hit him. He was trying to bite the whole time. I have also attached photos of myself - how I am bitten and scratched by him. The clip, which is currently on the networks, is heavily edited. You cannot see how the colleague goes in to buy him water. "It's not visible that I'm giving him my personal phone to talk to his mother," he added.
The lawyer for the other police officer - Ivaylo Nenov, confirmed that one of the uniformed officers received a minor injury during the arrest.
„Was it a hard, sharp object, how are things - it seems to me that there is a difference in the medical certificates of the two victims. Maybe a hard, sharp object was actually used on one, and not on the other," said defense attorney Stilyan Lyuboslavov.
Svetlozar Dimitrov says he fears for his life. „I'm afraid, especially for my loved ones. I am a family man and extremely worried about them”, he explained.
“Let us not forget that where the crowd enters, law and justice leave”, pointed out lawyer Lyuboslavov.
After the case, the two police officers were suspended from work. Their direct supervisor - the director of the Second Police Department, was also removed from his post. Today, the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed that he has already been reassigned to the “Economic Police”, but to a lower position.
Against this background, the tension in Varna after the man's death does not subside. A protest is being held in the city tonight. People are gathering in front of the Courthouse to head to the Asparuh Bridge, where traffic is scheduled to be blocked sequentially in both lanes. After that, they will return to the center.