During the trial against Nikola Burgazliev regarding the serious ATV accident in the Sunny Beach resort, new expert reports were presented. The main focus of the court hearing was on the results of drug tests, as well as questions surrounding the reliability of the various samples taken from the defendant immediately after the crash.
The expert witnesses questioned only the accuracy of the initial drug test conducted immediately after the collision. According to them, it cannot be definitively established whether the collection swab used contained a sufficient amount of DNA material from Burgazliev to make the result of this test reliable and objective.
However, the conclusions drawn from the laboratory analysis of the blood and urine samples were fundamentally different. Experts confirmed that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, was detected in these biological samples. The manner in which the material was stored was also reviewed: the vacuum tubes were placed in a plastic bag and duly labeled as physical evidence. According to the experts, the documentation is in perfect order, and there are no grounds to doubt that the blood and urine tested belong specifically to Burgazliev.
The specialists added that the results point to incidental rather than systematic marijuana use, with the narcotic substance likely having been consumed between 36 and 48 hours before the accident. The court accepted the presented expert reports. Before the start of the hearing, Nikola Burgazliev's mother requested the recusal of the judicial panel, citing a refusal to grant a defense request for the collection of additional evidence, but the court denied the recusal request.
The case concerns the serious ATV accident in Sunny Beach, where the investigation focused both on the circumstances leading to the collision and on the use of intoxicating substances. The consequences of the incident were tragic:
- 35-year-old Hristina, who was critically injured, died in the hospital about a month after the collision.
- Her 4-year-old son, Martin, was also severely injured; he fell into a coma and is currently continuing to recover from the serious trauma sustained.