The second defendant in the case concerning the murder of Plovdiv businessman Iliyan Filipov may be the actual perpetrator, while Slavcho Megerov may be the organizer. Criminalist Botyo Botev made this assumption on NOVA NEWS.
“Perhaps the second detainee himself is the murderer. When the timing and the facts are compared, he is probably the shooter. The question of where Slavcho was at that moment is a separate matter. He is the organizer, he is the instigator,” Botev said. His words represent an expert hypothesis, not an established fact in the case.
What the prosecution claims
The businessman was shot at around 1 a.m. on September 30 in a residential building in Plovdiv’s Hristo Smirnenski district. Slavcho Megerov was detained in Sofia hours after the murder and remains in custody on charges of premeditated murder.
The second defendant is 42-year-old Atanas Dechev. On November 13, the Plovdiv District Court ordered that he remain in custody permanently. According to the prosecution, he helped Megerov with information about the victim’s behavior and habits, and he is charged with aiding and abetting an intentionally facilitated premeditated murder. The court found that there was sufficient data to suggest involvement and a risk that Dechev might abscond.
Dechev denies having anything to do with the crime. His lawyer, Krasimir Eldarov, announced that he would appeal the detention measure. The Plovdiv Court of Appeals is due to consider the appeal on November 19.
Botev said that in the first hours after the murder, there had already been discrepancies between Megerov’s description and that of a person who had been seen leaving the crime scene.
“There are many unrealistic things in what is being stated at the moment, because the facts are still unclear,” the criminalist said. According to him, there had also been information about a person waiting on the fifth floor. Botev suggested that this had not been Megerov, since he was well known to the woman who was in the apartment.
The criminalist also pointed to the unexplained circumstances surrounding a person in the building who aroused the woman’s suspicions. It was even mentioned in connection with the case that he had been carrying a pistol. These claims have not been confirmed as facts by the court or the prosecution.
The investigation is ongoing. Video recordings, physical evidence and expert reports have been collected in the case, while the prosecution said that work on it had not been completed.