Bulgaria is returning to Lebanon the remains of the bomber who blew up a bus carrying Israeli tourists at Sarafovo airport in Burgas in 2012, BGNES reports.
He is 23-year-old Mohammad Hassan El Husseini, a citizen of Lebanon and France.
This was the deadliest attack on Israelis abroad since 2004. Five Israelis were killed, including a pregnant woman, as well as the Bulgarian bus driver.
At the request of the Husseini family, the then head of Lebanon’s General Security Agency, Abbas Ibrahim, was in contact with Bulgarian authorities to request the return of the body.
Bulgarian authorities asked the family to hire a lawyer and agreed to return Husseini’s remains during the war between Israel and Hezbollah last year, an anonymous source quoted by Agence France-Presse said.
Husseini’s family announced on social media that the funeral would take place on April 11 in the group’s southern stronghold in Beirut. The body will be buried in a cemetery used for slain Hezbollah fighters.
Both Bulgaria and Israel have blamed Hezbollah for the attack. The accusation played a role in the European Union’s subsequent decision to include the group’s military wing on its “blacklist” of terrorist organizations.
Airport security footage shows Husseini walking through the arrivals hall with a backpack shortly before the explosion. He then goes to a bus and tries to leave the backpack, but wants to take out the rest of his luggage. Passengers make a remark to him. Then the bomber takes the backpack and leaves, and seconds later an explosion goes off.
It became clear even then that Mohamed Hassal El Husseini did not act alone, but had two helpers – Meliad Farah and Hassan el Hajj Hassan.
In 2020, a Bulgarian court sentenced them to life imprisonment for the terrorist attack. Neither of the two defendants attended the trial. To this day, they are still missing and are among the most wanted people in the world.
