A team from OFFNews entered the "Petrohan" hut and published a series of videos after the police guard there was suspended. Vlado Yonchev, editor-in-chief of OFFNews – tells in "Mrezhata" on the program "Hristo Botev" details from the place.
"I was there for 10 or 11 days. Our site is one of the few that the relatives trust, and the main task was to film everything that can be filmed and that in a possible future would do some work. That's what we mainly did: we filmed footage, took photos, made videos. And the other thing - we helped move things out, because the hut was badly burned, it can't just be locked, and there were a lot of personal belongings and luggage there."
The surprise
"What really surprised me was the state the hut was left in. The guards seemed to have used the living room as a toilet. And they had gone out in the middle of what they were guarding. Which shows their attitude. There were a lot of cigarette butts, beer cans, papers, in general it was turned into a pigsty. Which contrasts a lot with the meticulous cleanliness that the deceased had. I know how clean they kept everywhere, how much they wanted it to be that way, and their attitude towards nature. In general, their whole attitude was one of such immense cleanliness. And we found a pigsty.
It was terrible - we walk around the hut and the relatives of the deceased are trying to remember what was where. There are certainly things that were burned - that's visible and logical. But there were things that we saw in the clips that the prosecutor's office distributed, and now they're gone. There were things that were obviously stolen.
For example - the guitars that were there. One of them is extremely expensive, the others are also very expensive. The cases are there, the guitars have been removed from inside. In the room where they kept their paragliders, someone took out the best ones. These are things that are hardly surprising, but they are a little offensive."
The Doubt
"There is an interrogation of Deyan – the first witness who discovered the bodies. In fact, on the day the things happened – February 1st – you remember on the recordings how Ivey and Plamen go down in one jeep, and then return in two jeeps. Going down in this one jeep, they actually have a meeting with Deyan – at the Petrohan fountain, which is about 6-7 minutes from the hut.
Where shortly before that, Ivey is seen entering the kitchen and taking some package. This is the package of cookies that he brought to Deyan, and Deyan gives him a package of plaster. In fact, the meeting was because they asked Deyan to bring them the plaster for this renovation. And then the footage shows Plamen taking down the sack with the plaster. This is actually the last thing they did. There are two rooms – one is already completely renovated, the other is being prepared for renovation. Most likely, this very plaster was dissolved in a bucket that is still there. And in fact, this is their last activity.
The other thing that is very impressive – what we found – in the kitchen we found dough for local bread. Bread that was waiting to be baked. It was left there to rise and that's how this dough remained. There is also a place where they kept their bread and two loaves – a loaf and a half – both were cut – they are still there.
Really – there are many questions. Who would commit suicide if they were about to bake bread? Or did they leave the paint on the walls – ready? Or the plaster – in the afternoon – to start renovating this room?
It is obvious to me that this is not a suicide. It is obvious that they were liquidated. And here I am interested in the role of the state. So, when there has been a murder, over the years we have seen many cases – and then the police always have a few on-duty lines: "We are working on all versions", etc. And here suddenly – on the second, on the third day – some phantasmagoria began to be imposed, whose sole purpose was the stigmatization of the victims. They should be made out to be some villains who, whatever happened to them – it's still a little.
And in fact, the other goal was probably to put the relatives in a stupor – somehow unable to react adequately and gather the necessary clues, evidence, actions that need to be taken immediately.
From there, a lot of actions followed, which are, to put it mildly, strange. The relatives constantly write some requests to the prosecutor's office – and it either satisfies them, or someone satisfies them and says that yes, they are right, but "somewhere something fell through the chain", "it was somewhere" and "at the moment they can't provide it to them".
Here – I will give an example of one of the requests of one of the parents of the deceased. He had requested the traffic data. And they only give outbound calls, but do not allow incoming calls, because this "contradicted the GDPR". Can you imagine – the person has died, and we are pampered with the GDPR – who called him to be hidden.
Which makes us think that there is something there – probably - after so much hiding. Or the other option is that it is a simple joke with the victims.
In fact, this case is so serious, on the one hand, because it raises a question about the attitude towards the dead. Can one speak of dead people like that? And on the other hand, it raises questions about whether we are not witnessing the participation of the state in covering up murders. Because no one can convince me that Ivey committed suicide with two shots to the head. We do not see any attempt to conduct an investigation."
When will we learn the truth
"After Minister Demerdzhiev said that he hopes that the whole truth will be revealed by the end of August, he continues as follows: "Let's collect all the pieces of information that the other services have." The Ministry of Interior has something, something - DANS, something - the prosecutor's office. Which seems extremely worrying to me.
I have the feeling that three parallel information gatherings are currently underway. I wouldn't call them investigations. Yes, maybe there was a period under the previous administration when these three services worked together, and right now I have the feeling that there is competition between them and everyone is trying to collect as much information as possible, not to share it with others, but to use it to refute what the other services have collected. Which sounds like complete discord to me.
And I am not at all convinced that with the change of government, all the mechanisms have been mastered. For example - the judiciary, in my opinion, continues to be controlled by the same people who controlled it before. I'm not too sure about the National Security Agency, but I'm not sure that there has been some kind of revolution there and the National Security Agency has started to deal with intelligence, and not with what they like to do.
I'm not pessimistic, because it seems to me that there is some kind of stir. The case has become very public, too many people are involved in it. People are also constantly contacting us, giving us some pieces of information. Sometimes this information is false - sending the wrong trail. But we are slowly, conscientiously trying to check everything, to disassemble the picture.
Given that this is a case that is terribly traumatic, it cannot remain like this. If it remains like this, it will be a huge trauma for the entire society. If there is no definitive evidence in one direction or the other, the trauma that you can be killed - and the murder will remain unsolved will remain. Or something more - that you can be killed by the state. This is something that destroys society. It destroys the trust that we can live together."