Bulgaria Chief Prosecutor Announces Preparations for Bus Bombing Reenactment

Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has informed that the reenactment of the July 18 Burgas bus bombing may be conducted no earlier than April, with some of the expenses to be covered by Europol.

In a Wednesday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), he specified that two buses had been bought to be detonated during the reenactment.

Tsatsarov made clear that the reenactment would help investigators determine the precise location, direction, and strength of the explosion, besides the bomb's makeup.

"Taking into account the bomb's makeup and its strength, the aim was totally different – the bus had to be detonated in motion, when the passengers were onboard," he added.

Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor suggested that a mistake or some personal reasons related to the perpetrators had caused the bomb to go off earlier than planned.

He emphasized that the investigation of the Burgas bus bombing had not concluded, adding that he felt worried by the term "well-founded assumption" used by Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov for Hezbollah's involvement in the attack.

Tsatsarov stressed that the prosecutor's office could not be used to make political decisions or to justify them.

Expounding on an earlier statement of Commissar Stanimir Florov, head of the Bulgarian anti-mafia unit GDBOP, Tsatsarov made clear that Bulgaria had requested assistance for the investigation of the deadly attack at the Sarafovo Airport from Israel, Morocco, Australia, and Lebanon.

Speaking after a session of Bulgaria's Consultative Council on National Security, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov announced Tuesday that the evidence gathered so far led to a well-founded assumption that two of the perpetrators of the deadly attack belonged to the militant wing of Hezbollah.

Tsvetanov explained that two of the three suspects involved in the bus bombing, which killed seven, including five Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian bus driver, and the perpetrator, had genuine passports from Australia and Canada.