site.btaDuring Visit to Israel, Acting Prosecutor General Sarafov Discusses Legal Aspects of Counterterrorism

Bulgarian acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov joined heads and senior officials of the prosecution services of Israel, EU Member States, the US and other countries for a discussion of the legal aspects of counter-terrorism at the international level, the Bulgarian prosecution service reported Tuesday. The meeting in Tel Aviv was organized by the Israeli Justice Ministry.

"We are duty bound to fight against terrorism in the name of the international community and the citizens of the countries around the world who share the principles of justice and humanity," Israel's Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said at the opening of the meeting. For his part, Israel's State Attorney Amit Aisman
stressed the global significance of countering terrorist organizations and using legal instruments in this process.

Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov highlighted the active role that Bulgaria has in counterterrorism within the EU: ensuring the security of the Union's external borders and prosecuting the perpetrators of terrorist attacks and radical group members. Sarafov recalled that the perpetrators of a terrorist act at the Burgas Sarafovo Airport in 2012 have received the harshest sentences under Bulgarian law, albeit in their absence. "Bulgaria and its law-enforcement and law-implementing institutions will continue to show zero tolerance to manifestations of radicalism," Sarafov said further.

On July 18, 2012, a suicide bomber, identified as Mohamad Hassan El Husseini (dual Lebanese-French citizen), blew himself up near a bus carrying Israeli tourists at Sarafovo Airport in Burgas (on the Black Sea). In September 2020, Hassan El Hajj Hassan, 28 (dual Lebanese-Canadian national), and Meliad Farah, 35 (dual Lebanese-Australian national), were sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism, murder of six persons (five Israeli holiday-makers and their Bulgarian driver), attempted murder of 35 persons, and damage to property (the destruction of the bus on which the bomb exploded and another one that was parked nearby).   

The participants in the discussions were familiarized with numerous investigations conducted by the Israeli authorities in an effort to plug the channels of financing terrorist operations worldwide.

Within the framework of his working visit to Israel, Sarafov held talks with representatives of the US Justice Department, senior officials of the Office of Germany's Federal Public Prosecutor and others.