25-year-old Mehmed Hasan, charged with the brutal murder of 7-year-old Damla Musa in Momchilgrad, faced the Kurdzhali Regional Court this morning.

 

The young man was brought under guard in the courtroom. He remained silent, but watched his watch tensely, local media reported.

 

Magistrates Mehmed Hasan demanded a shortened trial by acknowledging all the evidence gathered in the case in the pre-trial proceedings. No witnesses or experts will be questioned during the trial.

 

The court constituted as private accusers the mother and father of the murdered child. They also claimed the accused for non-pecuniary damage. BGN 500,000 demanded the mother and the father. 300 thousand asked Damla's grandmother.

 

The body of the first grade was found on December 17, about 7.30 am in the family home in Momchilgrad by her mother Sadet, who was returning from a night shift in a factory near Kardzhali. Damsla was alone in the apartment because her father worked in Belgium, her brother in Istanbul, and the grandmother had gone to Turkey in sick relatives.

 

The little girl was strangled and her head wrapped in tape.

 

Several days later, the 25-year-old cousin of Damla, Mehmed Hasan, was detained for the murder, and angry Momchilgrad people asked to lynch him.

 

The young man will be accountable to magistrates for having entered a foreign residence at night and for deliberate murder committed in an extremely cruel and harrowing way for the victim. The allegations are based on the evidence gathered in the investigation - witnesses' interviews, explanations of the accused, forensic medical expertise, and expert evidence of the material evidence, the state indictment said.

 

Throughout the investigation, Mehmed Hasan was detained in custody, which was not altered.

 

If he is found guilty, the punishment provided for in law is imprisonment of fifteen to twenty years, life imprisonment or life imprisonment without substitution.