The District Court in Ruse identified numerous procedural shortcomings in the prosecution’s actions regarding the circumstances of the death of 11-year-old Ventsi from Ruse. The boy died in the summer of 2023 after being struck by lightning during an unprotected football training session. According to the judge handling the case, Milena Peycheva, the investigation was neither objective, comprehensive, nor thorough.
As “Za Istinata” (“For the Truth”) reported, just days before the Christmas holidays last year, the supervising prosecutor Radislav Gradev ordered the investigation into the child’s death to be closed. The stated reason was that no crime had been established.
On February 11, the Ruse District Court ruled on a complaint filed by the child’s parents and overturned the prosecutor’s order to terminate the criminal proceedings.
“Despite the large amount of evidence collected, questions of essential importance for the proper resolution of the case remain unresolved. The possibilities for collecting evidence have not been exhausted, which is why the ROP decree should be overturned,” the press center of the District Court – Ruse responded in a letter to Za istinata (“For the Truth”).
The place where the incident occurred – the “Dunav” sports complex – is municipal property, but since 2018 it has been managed under a concession by the company “RDS Invest”. The owner of the company is Simeon Simeonov, nicknamed “the doctor”. Immediately after Ventsi’s death, he claimed to a reporter from Za istinata (“For the Truth”) that the sports complex was equipped with working lightning protection. This turned out to be a lie.
The inspection by the competent institutions one day after the incident found that none of the installed lightning rods were functioning properly.
“I received 10 sheets of explanation from the prosecutor’s office about how many violations were found during the investigation and one sheet that said that no one was guilty. That a crime had been established, that a violation had been established in many areas, including in terms of securing the stadium, but no one was guilty. There is no one to blame for this,” the mother of the deceased child, Nora Vutova, told Nova TV.
She pointed out that the documents she received after the decision of prosecutor Radoslav Gradev to terminate the investigation stated that, according to the expert who conducted measurements on the field, if there had been a working lightning protection system, the chance of a fatal outcome would have been 5 percent.
“That is, if there had been a working lightning protection system, the incident would not have happened, or it would not have had such consequences,” the mother says.
The District Court in Ruse states that it is necessary to clarify in an indisputable manner all issues related to the obligations of specific individuals to install lightning protection for open spaces and for one on the locker room building. According to the information collected, if there was a working and proper lightning protection on the locker room, it should also cover the terrain where the incident occurred.
“The court finds that in the case there is no indisputable evidence for the installation of a lightning rod on the locker room, on the contrary, there is data that one was purchased, but there is controversial data whether it was installed on the locker room, which is why this fact should not be taken for granted and thus the question should be put to the expert opinion,” the answers sent to “For the Truth” state, specifying that in view of this, “the court finds that an additional task should be set for the expert who prepared the forensic engineering expertise.”
Two years ago, “Za istinata” (“For the Truth”) published the report of the inspection by the competent institutions, carried out one day after the fatal accident in which the 11-year-old boy died. The commission, which included the then deputy mayor of Ruse, Eng. Magdalina Ilieva, municipal employees, representatives of the RDNSK and an external expert, found that there was no installed lightning protection receiver with preemptive action on the roof of the locker rooms in the southern part of the training grounds, as was foreseen in the approved investment project.
The inspection was also carried out in the presence of a representative of the concessionaire “RDS Invest” EAD and Stoyan Stanchev, manager of the company “SCS” OOD, which carried out the construction and installation activities during the concession period. According to Stanchev, a lightning rod was installed during the implementation of the project for the locker rooms, but at the time of the inspection (on 31.08.2023 – note) one was missing.
The conclusion from the findings in the report is obvious – on the day of the incident with 11-year-old Ventsi, there was not a single working lightning rod. At the same time, such facilities were provided for in the project with which “RDS Invest” EAD won the competition for concessionaire of the Municipality of Ruse. And despite all this, the supervising prosecutor in the case, Radoslav Gradev, claims that there is no evidence of a crime committed due to negligent performance of a legally regulated activity, which represents a source of increased danger.
The investigations by “Za istinata” (“For the Truth”) into Ventsi’s death led to the municipal councilors in Ruse voting 58 thousand leva for the construction of lightning protection on all municipal sports fields in Ruse. This happened immediately after “For the Truth” published documents from which it becomes clear that the Municipality of Ruse has long been aware of the malfunctioning lightning protection of a number of sports facilities, but despite this, timely measures were not taken.
