Coroner testifies Ani dismembered after death

A coroner on Tuesday told an Athens court that 4-year-old Ani Borisova, who was allegedly killed last year by her father, was dismembered after her death, not before, as the head of the Athens Coroner Service had testified last week.

In a report compiled by Dimitris Galenteris, a coroner who was put on the stand by defense lawyers, the 4-year-old might have died after ingesting heroin but was certainly not mutilated while still conscious.

Last week, the head of the capital’s coroner service, Nikos Karakoukis, who also inspected the crime scene, told the court that he was 95 percent certain Ani had been alive when she was dismembered.

The girl’s 27-year-old father, Bulgarian national Stanislav Bakardjiev, recently admitted in court to cutting up her dead body, but he denied killing her.

He argued that responsibility for the girl’s death lay with the second defendant 30-year-old Nazif Ahmedov, a friend and former roommate, who has denied the charges.

The victim’s 25-year-old mother Dimitrina Borisova is accused of covering for the killers. She allegedly worked as a prostitute to support the child and had a heroin addiction.