Eleven years after the terrorist attack on a busload of Israeli vacationers in Burgas, Bulgaria, the two main suspects remain on Interpol’s most wanted list.
Five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian driver were killed and 35 others were wounded in the bombing at Burgas Airport on July 18, 2012.
Bulgarian authorities attributed the attack to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group.
The suicide bomber was identified as dual Lebanese-French national Mohamad Hassan El Husseini, who had entered Bulgaria using the alias Jacques Felipe Martin.
After a four-year investigation, the case reached the courts in 2016, but the trial did not start until 2018. Nearly 100 expert reports were submitted into evidence and 200 witnesses questioned during the proceedings.
Lebanese-Australian Meliad Farah, 35, and Lebanese-Canadian Hassan El Hajj Hassan, 28, were tried in absentia and charged with terrorism.
The two men were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of commutation, and the court also awarded $115 million in civil damages to the victims’ families.
Farah and Hassan El Hajj Hassan remain at large.
