Bulgaria files charges in Burgas terrorist attack
July 15, 2016Bulgarian prosecutors on Friday filed charges against two alleged accomplices of a bomber who blew up a bus carrying Israeli tourists at a Black Sea coast airport in 2012, a spokeswoman said.
The charges were “filed today at the specialized criminal court in Sofia,” chief prosecutor spokeswoman Rumyana Arnaudova told AFP, providing no further details about the exact counts.
The bomber, identified as Franco-Lebanese national Mohamad Hassan El-Husseini, killed five Israelis, their Bulgarian driver and himself in the July 18, 2012 attack at Burgas airport, which left 35 other Israelis injured.
Bulgaria had previously identified his alleged accomplices as two Lebanese men with links to Hezbollah, named as Australian passport holder Meliad Farah and Canadian citizen Hassan El Hajj Hassan.
But prosecutors had so far been unable to locate them and would try them “in absentia,” Arnaudova said.
“The two accused have been on Interpol’s list of wanted persons for a long time now. There are Red Notices issued for them on our request. But we have no information so far about their whereabouts,” she added.
The specialized criminal court is expected to give more information on the indictment on Monday, the fourth anniversary of the bombing.
Bulgarian authorities have said in the past that the suspect two were members of the terrorist group Hezbollah, and that they fled to Lebanon after the attack.
Bulgaria had filed an extradition request to the Lebanese government. Bulgarian investigators said the two entered Bulgaria before the attack using faked identities.
The revelation of Hezbollah’s involvement in the attack contributed to an EU-wide decision in July of 2013 to blacklist Hezbollah as a terror group. However, the EU chose to only blacklist Hezbollah’s “military wing”, leaving its political faction off the list.
It has also been reported that Hezbollah wired almost $100,000 (75,000 euros) to the two suspects wanted in the attack.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
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