The Director of Bulgaria's Border Police Chief Directorate, Chief Commissioner Anton Zlatanov, attended the first court hearing in Edirne on the murder of Bulgarian border policeman Petar Bachvarov, the Interior Ministry's said in a press release here on Thursday.
The Border Police officer, Sergeant Petar Bachvarov, was shot dead on November 7, 2022, while patrolling the border with Turkiye, near the village of Golyam Dervent. A Turkish national was detained for the killing. The autopsy showed that the police officer was shot with hunting shotgun pellets, which eliminates the possibility of a shootout between Bulgarian and Turkish border police, the head of the National Investigation Service, Borislav Sarafov (now Acting Prosecutor General), explained back in November 2022. The main version on which the Bulgarian and Turkish investigators have been working, is that Bachvarov, who was patrolling the Bulgarian-Turkish border, was shot by a Turkish national attempting to steal livestock.
Zlatanov was heard by the court panel as a representative of the Bulgarian state. The Turkish court requested assistance in contacting the border police officer who was patrolling together with Bachvarov to be questioned as a witness. In addition, a request was made that the evidence of the damage to the patrol car be sent more quickly.
"We thank the Turkish authorities for their prompt and professional actions in investigating the death of the deceased border policeman," Zlatanov said, adding that the Bulgarian state and the entire Border Police support Bachvarov’s relatives.
The next hearing has been scheduled for December 14.
Earlier this week, Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov raised the issue of Petar Bachvarov’s murder before Turkish Deputy Justice Minister Hassan Yilmaz.
/RY/
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