Sofia military court launched a trial against five policemen who allegedly beat to death the defendant Angel Dimitrov, aka Chorata.

All five policemen are accused of extremely atrocious premeditated murder, mediapool.bg said.

At first, military prosecutors refused to present the trial before the court. Later the policemen were accused of murder due to incautiousness.

Police officers beat Dimitrov on November 10 2005, during a special police operation, mediapool.bg said. The case caused one of the biggest scandals to occur during the term of the current Interior Ministry.

Interior Minister Roumen Petkov found himself forced to dismiss the head of police in Blagoevgrad, where the crime took place.
The case was included as an example of police violation in the report of the US Department of State’s report on human rights in Bulgaria, issued in March 2007.