Bulgarian court's verdict on Hezbollah terror attack due in September
Chief prosecutor says “I hope that to some extent there will be justice” for the Israeli and Bulgarian victims.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA BUS IS seen at the airport in Burgas, Bulgaria, on July 18, 2012, after terrorists blew it up as it transported Israeli tourists to their hotels.(photo credit: REUTERS)
Bulgaria's Chief Public Prosecutor Ivan Geshev told media outlets on Friday that a verdict will be issued in September in the eastern European country in connection with allegations that operatives from the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah blew up an Israeli tour bus in 2012, murdering five Israelis and their Bulgarian Muslim bus driver.The specialized criminal court for serious offenses in Sofia is slated to begin the process to deliver a verdict on September 17.Bulgarian National Television reported that Geshev said that “I hope that to some extent there will be justice” for the Israeli and Bulgarian victims.“It is no secret that behind this terrorist act stands as logistics and funding, according to the supervising prosecutors and the evidence gathered by them, the Hezbollah organization,” he added.Geshev went on to say that "in Bulgaria, an organization and a legal entity cannot be prosecuted. Criminal liability is personal. Although people affiliated with the organization have been prosecuted in absentia, some call them part of Hezbollah's military wing, there is evidence that they belong to Hezbollah.”Toby Dershowitz, senior vice president for government relations and strategy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies a nonpartisan think tank focused on national security, told The Jerusalem Post that “Bulgaria has long known that Hezbollah was behind this horrific attack and has been clear about it. The fact that Bulgaria says it only has a mechanism to prosecute individuals, and not organizations, should not permit Hezbollah to yet again murder with impunity. Geshev’s comments that the evidence shows that Hezbollah provided funding and logistical support underscore what Bulgarian, Europol, American and other officials have stated for several years."Presuming the courts take the expected action and those on trial are found guilty, Europe, individual states and the European Union itself, should once and for all formally resolve that it will not permit Hezbollah to engage in malign activities – including murder – on its soil without repercussions of a full Hezbollah ban," she added.The Post previously reported that Bulgaria sent extradition orders to Lebanon’s government regarding the two Hezbollah operatives charged with the act of terrorism. The Lebanese-Australian Meliad Farah and Lebanese-Canadian Hassan El Hajj Hassan, who are suspected of blowing up the tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, are believed to be in Lebanon. Over 30 Israelis were injured during the bus terrorism attack.Lebanon has ignored Bulgaria’s request to extradite Farah and Hassan. The Islamic Republic of Iran funds Hezbollah, which serves as its chief proxy.Dershowitz said that “Hezbollah takes advantage of a world that hesitates to hold it accountable in fear of more terrorism. But it is impunity that begets more terrorism. “
Then-Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said at the time of the attack: "We have established that the two [accused] were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah.” He also said that “there is data showing the financing and connection between Hezbollah and the two suspects.Nickolay Mladenov, who was foreign affairs minister at the time, publicly stated that the government would not have issued a statement linking Hezbollah to the Burgas attack if it did not have solid evidence. “Nobody has ever exercised any pressure over Bulgaria.”Bulgaria and the European Union have merely banned Hezbollah’s so-called military wing and allowed the organization’s “political arm” to operate in Europe. Hezbollah raises funds, recruits news members and spreads its jihadi ideology in Europe.Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, the Arab League, Israel, Canada and many Latin American countries have designated Hezbollah’s entire movement a terrorist entity.
