A convicted Bulgarian killer has been nabbed in Port Elizabeth after almost four years on the run.
Now, extradition processes are under way for the man who, as a 19-year-old, took part in a brutal attack on a young pharmacy student.
Vili Krasimirov Georgiev, 29, was found guilty and sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment for the 2008 murder of Stoyan Baltov, 20, who lived in the Studentski Grad (student town) district of Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia.
International news reports at the time said Georgiev, along with Alexander Danailov and Svetlozar Stoilov, had beaten Baltov to death at about 3am on December 5 2008 in front of the Amnesia nightclub.
Baltov suffered severe head trauma and a skull fracture.
Georgiev and Danailov were initially the only two charged with what was unpremeditated murder due to the influence of alcohol.
Stoilov was arrested later after being implicated in witness testimony on behalf of the defence.
He had initially only been considered a witness to the beating.
Six years after the trial began, and after an appeal to the Supreme Court of Cassation in Bulgaria, the three were due to begin serving their sentences on December 19 2014.
They were also ordered to pay 450,000 Bulgarian lev (R3.8m) to each of the victim’s parents.But a national search warrant was issued four days later after it was discovered that Georgiev had absconded.
It is believed that Georgiev was spotted entering South Africa on December 10 2014 at the Cape Town International Airport.
It is not clear where he has been for the past four years.
He was arrested at a house in Amsterdamhoek on Friday by members of the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation.
The slender, blond Bulgarian appeared before magistrate Patrick Ntoyi in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Monday with his right arm in a sling. State prosecutor Marius Stander asked the court to grant an order for Livingstone Hospital to release his medical records for Georgiev to be transferred to the hospital wing of St Albans prison.
It is not clear what is medically wrong with him.
Defence attorney Ryno Scholtz, who is representing Georgiev, said his client would not be applying for bail.
Ntoyi ordered that the medical records be obtained from Livingstone before Georgiev’s next court appearance on Thursday.
Stander told the court the state would strive to give the extradition papers to the defence before then.
Shortly after the 2008 murder, students in Sofia staged a protest calling for authorities to clamp down on illegal nightclubs in the student district.