Last Friday, the Sofia District Court sentenced on first instance Serbian citizen of Albanian origin Bitiki Haki to four and a half years in prison for the contract murder of businessman Bozhin Bozhinov. This great success for the Ministry of Interior and of the prosecution – the first sentence in a prevented contract murder – went down in complete media silence!

On May 16, 2012, the Ministry of Interior announced loudly that it had solved the murder of a businessman. Actually, the Ministry has no role, whatsoever, in preventing this crime. Lebanese citizen Mustafa Mohammad Ismail appeared and told police how the Serb of Albanian origin Bitiki Haki hired him to kill businessman Bozhin Bozhinov for a pay of 20000 levs.

Bitiki Haki was arrested. A picture of Bozhinov was found on him, but he kept silent about the reasons why. Bozhinov, himself, was, however, adamant in his testimony before the Main Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime (GDBOP). According to him, the person who contracted the killing and the author of the picture was Valeri Velitchkov, the chemist in the case “Opitsvet.” The reason for Velitchkov to resolve to this drastic move was outstanding business disputes between his family and Bozhinov as they have been partners in several companies. However, the case against Haki was classified; media had no access to court hearings and witness testimony.

Bivol wrote back in 2012 that while Valeri Velitchkov was investigated in 2004, his wife was able to build a house for one million euros. That same year, Velichkov’s elderly mother acquired a very attractive property behind the Boyana Film Center for 400000 euros. The origin of the money is a mystery. After this publication, the prosecution launched pre-trial proceedings for money laundering on the order of Prosecutor General Boris Velchev, which sank in mystery as well.

Velitchkov is also a key figure in the case against former anti-mafia chief Stanimir Florov, who is being investigated for leaks in the “Opitsvet” bribery probe. The following is written in the proposal for launching a probe of the National Investigative Service in the case codenamed “Arabs,” dated October 21, 1999:

“According to unverified operational information, reflected in memo N ° B-5713/27.09.99, Florov worked in the “Opitsvet” case together with the subject of the probe and committed to warn the parties in case of threat to them against 20000 German marks.”

As Bivol reminded, Velitchkov is among the suspects whom Florov was informing about developments in the case. The other suspects were Kristian Mladenov, Nikolay Gigov and Adel Sarkis.

***

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