“I don’t think it’s me. I am certain. The gait is not mine. I don’t have such a jacket … with such inscriptions.”
This was stated in the courtroom by Stanimir Ragevski, accused of having killed the realtor Teodora Bahlova and the builder Yumer Mehmed, after he, the court panel, the lawyers of the parties and prosecutor Desislava Trifonova watched part of the video recording of a camera located on „Konstantin Fotinov“ Street #1 in Burgas. Before this happened, the expert Konstantin Kaikchiyan stated that he analyzed all the records that were provided to him and found no signs of internal or external manipulations. When asked by lawyer Vanya Radieva, who defends the accused businessman, what these marks are, the expert gave an example:
“If there is a skip. For example, if the built-in clock from 10:35 suddenly jumps to 10:45. He cannot be manipulated. (…) Neither internal nor external manipulations have been detected on all 9 media.”
The footage viewed today was provided by the “Military Police”. An Iskra.bg journalist also saw them, and on them at 12:57:47 the brief passage of a man who is on his back and moving near the facade of a block of flats is noticeable. He wears a dark jacket with a huge emblem on the back. It is such outerwear that Ragevski denies owning.
However, from our editorial office we recall the meeting of July 4, at which testimony was given by police officer Georgi Hristov from the „Criminal Police“ at the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-Burgas, who noted:
“Following Ragevski’s arrest, records from across the sector were reviewed. One colleague noticed that he was passing near the facade of Fotinov Street No. 1, immediately before Bakhlova stopped at the bus stop. Subsequently, we confirmed that it was Ragevski, as the person from the cameras had the same gait, and he was wearing a jacket with which he came to ODMVR-Burgas – there was a round emblem on the back and it was dark. After a few hours he left the address. (…) The cameras do not show Bakhlova leaving the address.”
And on the occasion of the recording in question, we also recall the interrogation of Stanimir Vladinov from May 31, who as of 2021 was an operative in the First Regional Office of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-Burgas:
“I’ve been looking at a lot of cameras. From Bakhlova’s disappearance until a few days later. We had footage from one camera showing her exit, then one camera from Bulair and Fotinov. Goes to „Bulair“ and turns at the second intersection. The footage from the cameras of the Military Police building is of poor quality.”
The fact that Ragevski’s address was 1 Konstantin Fotinov Street was also confirmed by the current director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-Burgas Senior Commissioner Emil Pavlov, who during an interrogation on May 30 stated:
“He admitted to us that he shot Teodora Bakhlova. He told us that in October 2020 he had an appointment to change a light bulb in Bakhlova’s mother’s apartment. After he replaced her, he and Teodora Bakhlova arranged to meet at Ragevski’s apartment on Fotinov Street. He’s gone before, and then she’s gone. He shot her when she entered the apartment. He shot her once in the chest. He then went to buy a can plus a 20 pack of caustic soda. He returned. He poured the packages into the can, put the corpse upside down in the can, poured water, but not to the top. He closed the lid and then wrapped the can in foil.”
During the hearing, it was not clear why the parties wanted to see exactly the recording with the worst quality.
More experts had to appear in court. One of them is Dr. Alexander Minchev, who prepared a forensic medical examination. The email of the District Court in Burgas received a message from the medic that he will not be able to appear today because he has been summoned for 4 more cases in Sofia. Another expert was revealed to be overseas on training and asked to be interviewed via video conference. All parties to the case have not objected to this, and a date is expected to be set with the experts when it is convenient for them to do so.
