Bulgarian court jails two men for life for 2012 bus bombing

A Bulgarian court sentenced two men of Lebanese origin to life imprisonment in absentia on Monday (September 21) over a 2012 bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver.

The two men were tried in absentia over the July 18, 2012 attack at Burgas airport on the Black Sea, and their whereabouts are not known. They are not entitled to parole.

The Specialized Criminal Court found Meliad Farah, 39, an Australian citizen, and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, 32, a Canadian citizen, guilty of being accomplices and ordered them to pay compensation to families of the victims and the injured.

A third man, of dual Lebanese-French citizenship, was killed in the attack when he blew up a bomb in a backpack he was carrying close to a bus at the airport.

Prosecutor Evgeniya Shtarkelova said the verdict would only be executed if an Interpol red notice issued for them led to their arrest.

Ivelin Dimitrov, a lawyer representing one of the survivors of the attack, said he was unhappy that the verdict would not be implemented and said his client still suffered from hearing difficulties and could not resume her job as a tour guide.

A five-member panel ruled that the two men had helped in the attack, which was aimed at causing confusion and fear among the peoples of Bulgaria and Israel. The verdict can be appealed within 15 days.

The attack has been blamed by Bulgarian authorities on Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah.

The judge made no mention on Monday of Hezbollah, but the prosecutor's office said in a statement that evidence "showed that the two defendants ... had links to the radical wing of Shi'ite group Hezbollah."

Hezbollah has denied involvement in the attack, which also injured more than 35 Israeli tourists.

Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organization by Washington, and the European Union put the armed wing of Hezbollah on its terrorism blacklist after the Burgas attack.