site.btaProsecutor General: No Grounds to Extradite Five Bulgarians to US in Syria Embargo Violation Case

Sofia, April 25 (BTA) - Bulgarian Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov said here Wednesday that there is no ground to extradite to the United States five Bulgarians accused for violating the Syria embargo. He was speaking after a meeting with US Ambassador Eric Rubin and Justice Minister Tsetska Tsacheva held in the office of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. The talks focused on the US request to extradite the five Bulgarians to be tried for a broad scope of offences connected with the violation of the Syria embargo.

The first of the five, Zhelyaz Andreev, 29, was arrested in Dobrich (Northeastern Bulgaria) earlier in April in connection with a Miami investigation against eleven individuals, including himself and four other Bulgarians, suspected of violating the US trade embargo against Syria. Andreev was charged with conspiracy to defraud the US government, smuggling goods from the US, submitting false or misleading export information, conspiracy to commit money laundering and false statements. The Bulgarian court released him after finding that he was unlikely to abscond while waiting a decision on his extradition. Around the same time, the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office said that on April 12 it received requests for the provisional arrest of four more Bulgarian nationals on grounds identical with the ones cited in the request concerning Zhelyaz Andreev, for whose arrest and extradition an INTERPOL Red Notice has been issued at the request of the National Central Bureau in Washington.

Andreev and several others of the accused worked for the Sofia office of AW-Tronics, a Miami-based company which shipped and exported various aircraft parts and equipment to Syrian Arab Airlines. Between May 2013 and April 2016, Andreev worked for the AW-Tronics sales department and his job was to offer aircraft parts to air companies and aircraft repair shops in various countries, including Syrian Air. He told a TV interview that he was the lowest-level employee in the company, that his job was to contact various companies and ask them whether they needed airplane parts, that he had not signed a single document or concluded any contract, nor had he made any decisions directly concerning a violation of an embargo.

Tsatsarov said after the meeting with the Prime Minister that consultations with the US side as per Art. 20 of the treaty between the two countries started yesterday. Both sides are represented by officials of the justice departments and prosecutors.

Tsatsarov explained that the legal prerequisites for the extradition do not exist in the case of the five Bulgarians and it is very unlikely for a Bulgarian court to decide in favour of extradition.

He said that the Bulgarian position was clearly communicated to the US side.