[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
novinite.com
The Prosecutor in Bulgaria's Southern city of Stara Zagora will ask a sentence of life behind bars for Nedelcho Vasilev.

The 58-year-old man is charged with murdering Monday evening police officer, Boncho Chernev, in the village of Enina, near the town of Kazanlak.

“What should I request – suspended sentence? It is not normal for Bulgarian police officers to get killed,” Prosecutor, Konstantin Tachev says.

Two police officers – Boncho Chernev, 38, and Nikolay Ivanov were called Monday evening to the village, over a man with a self-inflicted hand wound. When they arrived, they were taken inside the house by the killer's elderly mother. Vasilev had been drunk and with a bleeding hand. Chernev attempted to help him, but was attacked by the man with a knife. He later died from blood loss in the ambulance. The other policeman sustained cuts in the hand, was treated at the hospital and later released.

The attacker is currently in the Kazanlak hospital, under police watch.

The Interior Chief Secretary, Kalin Georgiev, pointed out that what makes the whole case even more tragic is the fact the two police officers went to Vasilev's house not to arrest him, but to offer help.

“The Bulgarian policeman is used to being bullied. Our colleagues are often insulted during such incidents. For a citizen to attack a police officers in uniform - this is a testimony that this man did not have any respect for the institution,” the Head of the Stara Zagora Police is quoted as saying.

The investigators found inside the killer's house a large amount of fireworks, deemed the cause of Vasilev's hand injuries.

Chernev will be buried with military honors in his native village of Gorno Cherkovishte, where a Day of Mourning has been declared for Wednesday.