“There are not any spies” on this courtroom, mentioned Camille Di Tella, a lawyer for 28-year-old Kiril Milushev, who mentioned he solely agreed to the quick Paris journey for leisure functions and filmed the pink handprints whereas drunk with out realizing the place he was.
Georgi Filipov, 36, who painted the pink palms on the memorial’s Wall of the Righteous, broke into tears in his remaining remarks to the courtroom when he mentioned his nine-year-old son had seen him on Bulgarian TV labelled a Russian spy. “He mentioned he was ashamed of me. I’m ashamed too.”
Filipov defined his giant tattoos depicting neo-Nazi symbols by his becoming a member of a nationalist group in his youth after a childhood marred in violence, throughout Bulgaria’s democratic transition within the Nineties.
Nikolay Ivanov, 42, was described in intelligence notes learn out in courtroom because the seemingly ringleader and orchestrator of the operation from Bulgaria, receiving directions through Telegram in Russian.
Ivanov, who intelligence background notes say has been in contact with suspected Russian spies up to now, did not persuade judges that he was “duped” by a pal, Mircho Angelov, the one one of many 4 nonetheless at giant. Ivanov was handed a four-year jail sentence.
Angelov, 27, who has been described in courtroom as the principle organizer on the bottom, obtained a three-year jail sentence.
