BULGARIA MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF BOURGAS AIRPORT TERRORIST ATTACK AGAINST ISRAELI CITIZENS

A ceremony to commemorate the victims of the terror attack on Israeli citizens will take place at 17.00 at Bourgas airport on 18th of July.

On 18th of July, 2012, a bomb exploded in a bus with Israeli tourists just arriving for their vacation in the Bulgarian coastal city of Bourgas. The blast killed five Israeli citizens, a Bulgarian bus driver and 35 people were injured. The seventh victim was the bomber himself.

Four years after the attack, two foreign nationals will be brought to court.The court proceedings will proceed in absentia, Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov said a week ago. The indictments will be filed against two alleged accomplices Meliad Farah, a Lebanese national who holds an Australian passport, and Hassan el-Hajj Hassan, a Lebanese national who holds a Canadian passport.

During the investigation, it was identified that foreign intelligence services had information, which they did not share, but which might have been crucial for preventing the terror attack.

This is the first attack on Bulgarian territory targeting a foreign country.

Four years ago, hours after the attack, it became clear that the security cameras took an image of the suicide bomber. A young man with a backpack, baseball cap over long hair, but later it turned out he was wearing a wig. It was found that the bomber had a fake driving license. His identity was confirmed through a DNA analysis and other investigative procedures. The investigative authorities restored the image of the bomber from the head they found and even managed to take fingerprints from his heavily charred fingers. Despite that, a long time passed before the perpetrators were identified although the investigation was conducted by Europol and Interpol.

The indictments against the two alleged accomplices were filed to court on 15th of July 2016.

Now the trial against Meliad Farah and Hassan el-Hajj Hassan will proceed in absentia. They are accused of committing acts which had assisted the perpetrator who died to accomplish the terrorist act, the Chief Prosecutor said.The indictment consists of 80 pages.