The killing of a 37-year-old man in Plovdiv on August 4 has become one of the most disturbing criminal cases in Bulgaria this year, both for the extreme cruelty described by prosecutors and for the account the accused have given of their own motive. Five teenagers, three boys and two girls aged between 14 and 17, have been charged with the murder of Georgi Kuzev from Krichim and all five were remanded in custody by the Plovdiv District Court. What follows is an account of what has been established, what the accused claim and what remains under investigation, drawn from the statements of prosecutors, police, the court and those close to the victim.
How the killing happened
According to the Plovdiv prosecutor's office, a 17-year-old girl in the group used a fake social media profile presenting herself as 15 years old to arrange a meeting with Kuzev on Youth Hill in Plovdiv. Prosecutors say Kuzev did not conceal his age in their exchanges and stated openly that he was 37. Supervising prosecutor Anelia Trifonova said that in the minds of the young people, the meeting was an attempt to confront a supposed pedophile, modeled on the self-styled "pedophile hunter" groups active on social media, though investigators stress the aim was not to detain the man and call police, but to attack him.
