A court in Burgas has released Nikola Burgazliev from custody and placed him under house arrest with an electronic tag. He is on trial over a quad bike crash in Sunny Beach in the summer of 2025, in which five people were hurt and 35-year-old Hristina died.
Before today's hearing, Hristina's mother insisted to reporters that Burgazliev should stay in custody.
Burgazliev has been held for more than 14 months. The Burgas Regional Court was reviewing his detention for the 11th time.
He cannot leave Bulgaria without the court's permission. The panel has two judges and three lay judges. One of the judges signed the ruling with a dissenting opinion, saying detention is still the only suitable measure.
The majority said there is so far not enough concrete evidence that Burgazliev intends or is preparing to go into hiding. The court noted that he has no criminal record, has lasting family ties in Bulgaria and did not break the terms of an earlier house arrest.
The risk that he will flee has not gone away completely, the judges said, but the tag and house arrest can limit it. They said the new measure does not downplay the serious consequences of the crash, and that custody should not be used to serve in advance a sentence that may be passed later.
Zlatka Sokolova, Hristina's mother, told BNT: "I can't accept it. I simply don't accept it. This boy killed my child, and they are letting him go to house arrest."
Galina Koleva, Burgazliev's lawyer, also spoke to BNT and declined to comment: "I won't discuss it. I don't want to discuss anything. You don't report the news accurately, either one side or the other. You don't report the information you are given."
The ruling can be appealed to the Burgas Court of Appeal within seven days.