Bulgaria to request extradition of the person convicted of double murder outside Solo disco club and detained after 12 years on the run

By the end of the week, the Prosecutor's office will prepare and send to the Uzbek authorities the documents for the extradition of Ilian Todorov, convicted for the murder of two young men in front of the former Solo disco club in 2009.

This assurance was given to the relatives of the victims at a meeting with the Prosecutor General on March 7.

More than 200 pages of materials in the case will be translated into Russian, said Mihail Vuzharov, father of one of the fatally stabbed young man - hockey player Kirill Vuzharov.

Images by BGNES

"He assured us that the documents are currently being translated and will be sent in an official way to the Uzbek side in two or three days. This is what they gave us as information. They are working hard on the case by all the services that are involved in this case and they are doing absolutely everything possible in the fastest way to be able to bring him to Bulgaria," said Mihail Vuzharov.

On 18 April 2009, two groups had an argument in front of the former Solo disco club in the capital Sofia, which is located metres away from the Court Palace.

It all ended with several knife attacks - 21-year-old Kiril and 24-year-old Vasil were killed, another young man was injured. Ilian Todorov was arrested for the crime. A trial followed, and at first instance court the accused was acquitted.

"The issue should not be put like this - there are young people who died, for whom we all mourn, there is an injured person who has experienced the corresponding stress and at all costs someone should be punished. That is not the case and it should not be the case. The court is subject to the rules of the Law. The one who has done something specific and for which there is certain evidence should be punished," Rumyana Chenalova, the judge in the case, said at the time.

Thus, Ilian Todorov was released in 2011, and two years later the Court of Appeal imposed a "life imprisonment". The sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Cassation, but meanwhile Todorov had disappeared without a trace. At the end of 2013, his address to the then Prosecutor General appeared on a video-sharing platform, in which he described the sentence as "manifest injustice".

"The physical killer is at large and is among you. I saw the perpetrator because he was metres away from me and our eyes met. I have no detailed information about him, which it later turned out he actually had about me, because the threats only started a few hours after that. They continued in the remand prison and later in the Central Prison in Sofia. I had to keep silent because they threatened to kill my family and later me as well," said Ilian Todorov.

A recording was uploaded to Ilian Todorov's profile on the platform again at the end of 2013 with the following description:

"This recording shows the fight at Solo disco club, how I got into a taxi and how the fight continued after I left. Nowhere I am filmed pulling out a knife and using it," Todorov said.

14 years after the double murder outside the former Solo disco club in Sofia and 10 years after the sentence to life imprisonment, Ilian Todorov was detained in Uzbekistan while trying to get on a flight to Turkey.

When and how will Ilian Todorov be extradited? One option is for the criminal proceedings to be completed in Uzbekistan and then he will be handed over to Bulgaria to serve both sentences in this country. The other option is to hand him over to the Bulgarian authorities and try him here for using a fake passport.

After 12 years on the run, the person who killed two people outside Solo disco club has been detained

***

On Easter Sunday, April 18, 2009, 21-year-old Kiril Vazharov, a goalie for the national ice hockey team and 24-year-old Vasil Alexandrov were fatally stabbed.

Todorov was initially acquitted by the Sofia City Court, but appeals magistrates, as well as the Supreme Court judges, found him guilty.

The so called "Solo" case was accompanied not only by twists and turns, but also by many scandals and a perceived lack of justice.

The most controversial part of the trial was the hearing of the case in Sofia City Court. At that time, the relatives of the two murdered boys and their lawyers repeatedly demanded the recusal of the judges.

They even openly stated that the outcome was a foregone conclusion and justice would come in the higher instances - the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Cassation.

This was the last case that Rumyana Chenalova (a dismissed judge who was at the center of several high-profile scandals in Bulgaria) heard as a criminal judge. It is her acquittal that is being commented on today by the relatives of the murdered.

"Retribution is for his friends, for these young people who are disheartened and discouraged that everything happens with impunity in this country. For me today, from the calls from his friends who found out about the detention, I just realized that there was a completely different note in their voice. It's not joyful, but some hope that there is some retribution," Mihail Vazharov, father of Kiril Vazharov, one of the young men who was killed outside the disco club, said yesetrday, March 6, 2023.

For Mikhail Vuzharov, his son's death cannot be atoned for, but after years of touring the courts, he says he had the hardest time accepting the first verdict, when the Sofia City Court acquitted Ilian Todorov of the double murder outside the former Solo discoteque.

"The assistant judge was of a dissenting opinion and absolutely adamant that Todorov was the perpetrator. But despite everything, Judge Chenalova acquitted him and imposed absolutely no measure on him. At least his international passport should ehave been taken away at that time, some measure could have been imposed, until the other instances have ruled," added Mihail Vazharov on March 6, 2023.

Ilian Todorov was released in 2011, and two years later the Court of Appeal imposed one of the most severe punishments - "life imprisonment". The sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Cassation, but meanwhile Todorov had disappeared without a trace.

He was circulated as wanted on Interpol Red Notice. There was no sign of Todorov for 10 years until 1 March, when he was detained at Tashkent airport with a fake passport while trying to board a plane to Istanbul.

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