False start for ninth time in Bulgarian special court trial of Bourgas Airport terrorist attack accused
For the ninth time since hearings were meant to begin in September 2016, Bulgaria’s Special Criminal Court has not proceeded with the trial of two accused of involvement in the July 2012 terrorist attack at Bourgas Airport that left five Israelis, a Bulgarian and a suicide bomber dead.
The November 15 2017 scheduled hearing in the trial did not proceed because Elza Andreeva, legal counsel for the family of Bulgarian bus driver Mustafa Kyosov who died in the blast, was absent.
Those accused in the terrorist attack on the group of Israeli tourists on July 18 2012 are Meliad Farah, holder of Australian and Lebanese citizenship, and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a Canadian passport-holder, who face terrorism and document fraud charges in connection with their assistance of Mohamad Hassan El-Husseini, who died in the bomb attack on a tourist bus that had been meant to take the Israelis to a popular Bulgarian Black Sea resort.
An international investigation led by Bulgaria established that the terrorist attack was the work of the military wing of Hezbollah. This led to the European Union declaring Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist organisation.
The two accused are the subject of an Interpol search warrant but have not been taken into custody, which is why the trial is being held in absentia.
At the previous hearing, it emerged that those injured in the terrorist attack have lodged claims for compensation to a total of 220 million leva.
The next hearing in the trial has been set down for December 19.
