site.btaSofia City Prosecution Office Brings Five People to Trial for Death of 18 Afghans near Lokorsko in 2023

The Sofia City Prosecution Office brought five people to trial for participation in an organized criminal group, smuggling and the murder of 18 Afghan citizens, its press centre said on Tuesday. The trial is yet to be scheduled.

On February 17, 2023, the bodies of 18 illegal migrants, who had apparently suffocated to death, were found on a truck near the village of Lokorsko (16 km north of Sofia). The truck was transporting over 50 persons concealed in a secret compartment below a load of timber. The survivors were found freezing cold and wet. 

The indictment states that 52 Afghans were loaded into a truck from the area of the village of Zidarovo, Burgas Region. There were two metal structures covered with wooden planks, separated as separate rooms. One had the following dimensions: width 1.96 m, length 2.56 m and height 0.75 m. The other -width 1.95 m, length 2.56 m and height 0.80 m.

According to the prosecution, two of the defendants saw that the Afghans could not breathe normally because they were pressed tightly together, but they closed the lids of the containers, fastened their seat belts and drove off. The deaths of the deceased occurred in a particularly painful manner as a result of combined asphyxia, the prosecution service added.