Interior Ministry: Investigations continuing into Christchurch attack accused’s trip in Bulgaria
Brenton Tarrant, charged with murder following the shooting attack on two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, visited historical sites in Bulgaria related to the country’s 19th century liberation from Ottoman rule, Interior Ministry chief secretary Ivailo Ivanov said on March 16.
Ivanov’s statements to journalists came a day after Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov announced that Tarrant had visited Bulgaria from November 9 to 15 2018.
On the weapon used in the attack in New Zealand, there were inscriptions in the Cyrillic alphabet and names of places in Bulgaria where decisive battles took place during the Russo-Turkish war that opened the way for the end of Ottoman rule of Bulgaria.
Ivanov said: “I want to assure everyone that at the moment there is categorically no information about any activity connected with terrorism on the territory of Bulgaria. For now, the information that we have is that he (Tarrant) came to Bulgaria as a tourist”.
The Interior Ministry chief secretary said that his colleagues had been working through the night on the investigation into Tarrant’s visit to Bulgaria.
“There is contact with the partner offices, the whole route of movement on the territory is established for the country, now we are checking out specific data and links.”
Ivanov said that checks were being made regarding places where Tarrant had stayed during his trip to Bulgaria.
“The work ahead of our colleagues is to establish, after all it was a week, whether he had meetings with Bulgarian or foreign citizens while he was on the territory of the country,” Ivanov said.