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Anastasia Balezdrova

Stanislav Bakardjiev, the biological father of 4-year-old Ani and defendant in the case of her murder, is giving additional evidence before the investigator in Athens.

Earlier today, Stanislav faced the court in Athens on charges of drug possession and distribution but his defender Panagiotis Chrisikakis requested that the case be postponed. The court accepted his request. Ani’s mother Dimitrina Borisova is accused in the same case too but she did not appear in court.

The police took Stanislav out of building number 2 on Evelpidon Street, through the entrance of the basement that they use to take out the most dangerous offenders and terrorists, and escorted him to building number 9 on the same street, which houses the investigating service. Stanislav was convicted of his daughter Ani’s murder and destruction of her body after the police raided his flat and found traces of the child’s blood in the gaps between the tiles and pieces of human tissue in the water closet siphons. However, the testimony of the father and his friend Nikolay, whose role in the crime has not yet been clarified but  is certainly significant, differ with regard to the days when the offence was committed.

Stanislav walked for a few metres in the courtyard of the court with his head bowed down and no obvious signs of bruises.

Dozens of journalists with cameras were waiting for him around the court buildings but he uttered no word in response to their attempts to talk to him. However, Stanislav Bakardjiev’s mother Ofelia who appeared today outside the building of the investigation service was more talkative. "Having testified yesterday, I received a phone call from Dimitrina (Ani’s mother - author’s note) who told me that I should have called her before facing the investigator. She wanted to warn me to say that I had taken the child from her and not from Stanislav so as to help him. However, I told the truth, namely that I had taken the child from my son," Ani’s grandmother told the journalists.

Last Tuesday, director of the police in Athens Christos Papazafiris had announced at a press conference that Stanislav had confessed to the destruction of Ani’s body but not to committing the murder. The man was placed in an isolated cell in Corfu prison under 24-hour surveillance. In several telephone interviews with the Greek media from the cell, he has virtually withdrawn his confession to the destruction of the body, stating he is innocent and blaming the murder on his friend Nikolay. His defender Panagiotis Chrisikakis has sent a request to Bulgaria to summon witness Nikolay to testify in person before the investigator. According to lawyers, this is the reason for taking Stanislav out of prison and bringing him to Athens, not the case of drugs at which a defender can represent him alone.

To be continued