Plamen Rusev, who stabbed Ivan Angelov with a knife in broad daylight on 27 November 2022 near the New Post Office in Burgas, has been released under house arrest. This was reported by the brother of the murdered man, Trayan Angelov on Facebook, where he described what happened as „a precedent case for the Bulgarian justice system“.
Angelov recalled that around 11:30 a.m. on November 27, three armed persons stalked his brother Ivan in front of their home in the center of Burgas. According to him, when he went out for cigarettes, the 32-year-old man from Burgas was attacked with a metal pipe and he was chased through the streets with two huge knives over 300 meters. He was found on the main „Stefan Stambolov“ boulevard, in the immediate vicinity of the New Post Office and Burgas Free University. All this happened in front of bank cameras and the eyes of numerous witnesses. Angelov added:
„It was there that Plamen Rusev stabbed him in the chest with a 28 cm knife. With this knife, he cut his ribs in the area of the heart, spleen and liver, and the diaphragm in two places together with the aorta. After a few days of fighting for his life, my brother died in the Burgas District Hospital.“
Rusev was charged under Art. 116 of the Criminal Code for murder under hooligan motives with particular audacity and cruelty, Trayan Angelov pointed out. He said this man was also a repeat offender for stabbing and had convictions for that, as well as charges for attempted murder. Several times, his attempts to change the measure under „house arrest“ were rejected by the Burgas District Court.
On 1 August, Judge Yanitsa Chenalova was sent to the Burgas Court of Appeal to change Rusev’s remand measure. On this occasion, the bereaved relative commented:
„The interesting fact here is that Judge Chenalova is the wife of the lawyer of Zhoro with the mock knife, who cut the face of 18-year-old Debora – Lawyer Stanimir Chenalov. His sister turned out to be infamous Former Judge Rumyana Chenalova, who freed the killer of the two boys from the Solo disco. The sister-in-law of the „rotten apple“ in the Xavier de Caban case is also a judge, but in Burgas – what a coincidence!“
I have no definition for this decision, said Angelov adamantly, as well as for the fact that out of three attackers, only one is accused, and only the testimony of the other two perpetrators is taken into account.
„I have no words to describe these decisions taken by the Burgas Prosecutor’s Office. To me, there is something wrong with our justice system and surely this could be a serious obstacle to our Schengen membership! Cold-blooded killers and judges are walking the streets among our society and children.“
Two days ago, Ivan Angelov’s father saw his son’s killer – Plamen Rusev, breaking his punitive measure, walking through the streets of the city in the company of two other people. According to him, there was no result of the reported alert.
„It’s not just this problem – just imagine the sense of impunity they walk around with when, after committing such a serious crime, they get a ridiculously light punishment or even none at all. It is sacrilege, it is wrong and it is confusing. These cases are a clear sign of our rotten justice system and the deacay of our society as a whole if we turn a blind eye. Today, it is Debora, Ivan, Kiril and Vasil, tomorrow it could be you, your children or your loved ones. No one thinks about it until it happens to them, and believe me with such people on the loose the probability is not small. To most of you these are just names, but to us they are tragedies. Families with ruined lives! Help us get the word out and stop the tragedies for other Bulgarian mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters!“
Still, Trayan Angelov hopes the Bulgarian magistrates will do their job, motivated by their conscience and not by other incentives. Murderers must get what justice determines for them, because when justice fails, human life is worth nothing.
