Bulgarian Truck Driver Faces Iran Death Penalty in Second Hearing

Under Iranian law the punishment for trafficking even the smallest amount of drugs is death by hanging. Photo by irantoday.co.kr

55-year-old Zhivko Roussev is facing a second hearing Tuesday on drug smuggling charges in Iran, which could result in him being given the death sentence.

The hearing is to be held in Iran's fourth largest city, Tabriz, where Roussev is in custody for allegedly smuggling 135kg of heroin on his truck.

Bulgaria's consul in Iran will be present at the hearing, BNT reported. The consul visited Roussev in Tabriz jail 10 days ago, and said that Roussev was in good health, with enough food and other necessities. He had spoken several times with his daughters on the phone.

Roussev is expected to plead not guilty, Bulgarian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dragovest Goranov told BNT.

Iran has assured the Bulgarian authorities that Roussev will face a just trial. However, under Iranian law the punishment for trafficking even the smallest amount of drugs is death by hanging.

In September 2008, the 55-year-old Roussev, from the southern Bulgarian town of Galabovo, was arrested in the Northern Iranian city of Tabriz in an anti-drug operation.

Even though the man disappeared his daughter did not alert the Bulgarian authorities because she thought her father had got married to a Russian woman in Armenia.

Roussev's transport company waited for quite a while before telling the police one of their truck drivers was missing but they announced a wrong name. Thus, Bulgaria's Foreign Affairs Ministry only learned about the case in January 2009.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!