FALSE START TO THE TRIAL OF BOURGAS AIRPORT TERRORIST ATTACK

The trial related to the Bourgas Terrorist attack did not start on 26th of September.

Two foreign citizens, wanted by Interpol, are accused of being involved in the attack.

The trial was postponed because a number of witnesses, Israeli citizens injured in the bombing, had not been properly summoned to the court proceedings. The Israeli lawyer, who appeared in the court, authorized by many of the witnesses, was required to go through a special procedure under the Law on the Bar to be able to officially represent them in a case in Bulgaria.

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.

The investigation of the terrorist attack went on for 4 years. The indictment was submitted to court in 2016 on the date marking the anniversary of the attack. There are 80 volumes of documents, more than 170 witnesses had been interviewed.

The two suspects accused in-abstenia are Meliad Farah, holder of Australian passport and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a Canadian passport-holder and Lebanese citizenship.

According to the prosecution, the two will face charges for allegedly assisting the suicide bomber Mohamad Hassan El-Husseini, who died along with the other six in the explosion at the airport in Bourgas.