Ukrainian Citizens Face Trial for Murder of Bulgarian Premier

The investigation of the murder case of former Bulgarian Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov in 1996 has come to a close. The cases of two Ukrainian citizens and three Bulgarians charged with murder have been submitted to the prosecutor’s office for upcoming trial, Bulgaria’s BTA agency reports. Mr. Lukanov, who twice headed the Bulgarian government, was shot to death on October 2, 1996 near his house in Sofia. BTA called this the most spectacular contract murder in Bulgaria during the last fifty years. Five individuals have been indicted for Lukanov’s murder: Oleksiy Kichatov and Oleksandr Rusov from Ukraine, and three Bulgarians, including 56-year-old Andzhel Vasilev, who is accused of having hired the killers.