A three-member panel of Bulgaria’s Supreme Court of Cassation issued the final sentences in the case concerning the killing of 33-year-old Evgeniya Vladimirova. The decision is final and cannot be appealed or challenged.
The court found 41-year-old Orlin Vladimirov guilty of the premeditated murder of his wife, committed in an exceptionally cruel manner. He will serve 20 years in prison under an initial strict regime. The Supreme Court upheld the Sofia Court of Appeal’s acquittal of his 65-year-old father, Plamen Vladimirov.
In mid-October 2021, Evgeniya was reported missing by her husband. He told police that she had left for a gym in a neighboring Sofia district but had not returned, and that her phone was switched off. The woman, who was the mother of a six-year-old boy, was searched for nearly a month. At the beginning of November, investigators found her body inside a suitcase that had been dumped in a tailings pond near Pernik.
Orlin and his father Plamen, a former State Agency for National Security employee, were arrested and made full confessions. The investigation established that the couple had argued, probably over jealousy. Orlin attacked Evgeniya and strangled her with his hands until she lost consciousness. Believing that he had killed her, he wrapped her head in foil four times and covered her mouth and nose. At that point, however, the woman was still alive, although unconscious.
The man then called his father. Plamen Vladimirov placed his daughter-in-law’s body, together with the suitcase, in his personal vehicle and dumped it in the tailings pond near Pernik.
At the end of 2023, the Sofia City Court found both father and son guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment under an initial strict regime. They appealed and requested a new forensic medical examination. The Sofia Court of Appeal initially upheld the sentences, issuing its decision in February of the following year.
At the beginning of December 2025, the Supreme Court returned the case for a fresh hearing by a different panel of the Sofia Court of Appeal. One member of the Supreme Court panel signed that decision with a dissenting opinion.
During the renewed proceedings in February, the appellate judges fully acquitted Plamen Vladimirov and reduced his son’s sentence from life imprisonment to 20 years in prison under an initial strict regime. Both Evgeniya’s relatives and the defendants challenged that ruling.
The Supreme Court found all the appeals unfounded. The justices said that during the investigative reconstruction involving Plamen Vladimirov, his right to remain silent and his right not to incriminate himself had been violated.
The panel also concluded that the testimony of the witnesses present during the procedure could not establish that Plamen Vladimirov had given his son advice or instructions about how to carry out the murder or conceal evidence of the crime.
Source: dir.bg
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5512 | 26 Oct. 2026 | 18:52
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