Plovdiv Appeal Court has upheld the life sentence given to Gendzhebay Mehmed for killing a 4-year-old boy in Haskovo and badly beating the boy's mother, the court's press office said today. Haskovo Regional Court ruled on the case in March this year.
The court rejected as unfounded appeals by the defendant and the private prosecutors, and an appeal by the prosecution. The prosecution and the boy's family had asked for the harshest penalty, "life imprisonment without parole". The defendant wanted a lighter sentence.
The judges said the charges were proven beyond doubt. They said the Haskovo sentence is fair and fits the gravity of the crimes.
The killing took place in Haskovo in the early hours of 24 December 2022. The court found that Mehmed began beating the mother and the boy tried to protect her. The man hit the boy many times on the head with his hands, then on the body with a wooden bat. The child died of his severe injuries.
Haskovo Regional Court found Mehmed guilty of the intentional murder of a young child, committed as a dangerous repeat offender and with particular cruelty, and gave him "life imprisonment". He got another 10 years in prison for causing the mother moderate bodily harm in the same circumstances.
He was also convicted of driving without a licence and of driving an unregistered vehicle. The court ruled that he will serve the heaviest sentence, life imprisonment.
Mehmed must also pay the boy's family more than €270,000 in compensation in total.