Orlin Vladimirov's 20-year prison sentence for murdering his wife Evgenia is now final, the Supreme Court of Cassation said. Her body was found in a suitcase near Pernik five years ago. The court also upheld the acquittal of his father, Plamen Vladimirov, who was tried as an accomplice.

On 27 September, Siyanie leader Nikolay Popov criticised the Sofia Appeals Court ruling in the same case on Facebook.

Earlier on this story: Nikolay Popov slams sentence in Evgenia murder case

The Supreme Court said the murder was premeditated and carried out in a particularly agonising way.

Earlier this year, the appeals court cut Orlin's life sentence to 20 years. Six months ago it acquitted his father, Evgenia's father-in-law. There is not enough evidence of complicity, and because of the blood tie to his son, the law says the father can be tried for concealment.

At the hearing in late September, the defence asked for the case to go back to the appeals court, for Orlin's sentence to be cut to under 20 years, and for the father's innocence to be confirmed. Prosecutors and the victim's family also asked for the case to go back, but so that the life sentences could be restored.

Evgenia's mother reproached the two men in front of the judges, saying the father lives in peace, eats, drinks, bathes and sleeps in a clean bed.

"Have you no shame? She gave you a grandson. Why didn't you send one gift for this child in 5 years?" she said, turning to them. She added: "Not a human being, but a monster!"

Someone close to Evgenia said she hoped for justice and called what happened lawlessness.

The court found that Orlin spent months monitoring his wife's chats and correspondence, and killed her in the family home in 2021. After she disappeared in the winter of 2021, he claimed she had gone to the gym and not come back. He took part in the search for her and went to dinner with her family.

The couple's son is 11 and lives with Evgenia's brother.