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5 men accused of killing former Bulgarian prime minister

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January 22, 2001 

SOFIA-- (AP) - Two Ukrainians and three Bulgarians have been charged with killing Bulgaria's former Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov, the state BTA news agency reported Sunday. Lukanov, who served as government head for the Socialist Party of former communists from 1989 to 1990, was shot dead in front of his Sofia home Oct. 2, 1996.

Judicial authorities released few details about their investigation, but stories published in Bulgarian newspapers in recent years suggested that Lukanov, once a member of the Moscow-trained Bulgarian communist elite, was the victim of business rivals.

Ukrainians Alexander Rusov and Alexey Kichatov, Bulgarian businessman Angel Vasilev, his nephew Georgi Georgiev and Yuri Lenev, an employee in Vasilev's firm, have been charged for complicity in the killing, the agency quoted Rusov's lawyer Marin Markovski as saying.

Rusov and Kichatov are under arrest, and the Bulgarians are out on bail, the report said.

The lawyer, Markovski, declined to offer information about the specific charges against each of the defendants. Local media have speculated that Vasilev, a construction entrepreneur who apparently was at odds with Lukanov, hired Rusov and Kichatov to kill him.

Ukraine extradited Rusov and Kichatov on Bulgaria's request last year Rusov's lawyer denied his client's involvement. "The charges against my client are not proved and his arrest was illegal," Markovski said.

The trial date has not been set, Markovski said. Vasilev, 56, was extradited to Bulgaria last year from the Czech Republic. He left Bulgaria in 1998 after his company ran up a dlrs 5.6 million debt to a local bank that later went bankrupt. That company was part of the large Orion group, known to be run by Lukanov's foes within his party.

Shortly after Lukanov's death, his close friends were quoted by Bulgarian media as saying he had compromising documents about Orion, which was close to then-Socialist Prime Minister Zhan Videnov.