Bulgarian Truck Driver Gets Life Sentence for Drug Trafficking in Iran

The locked home of Zhivko Rusev in Bulgaria's Galabovo; the local people cannot believe the man is guilty of drug trafficking. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian truck driver, Zhivko Rusev, who was caught with 130 kg of heroin in 2008, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

The news has been confirmed by Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry on Monday. Thus, Rusev has been spared the death sentence envisaged by Iranian law in such cases.

The 55-year-old Bulgarian driver, a native of the southern Bulgarian town of Galabovo, was arrested in September 2008 in the Iranian city of Tibriz in an anti-drug operation.

The police forces discovered 135 kg of heroin in a secret compartment of his truck, which threatened to bring Rusev a death sentence.

It is unclear whether Rusev actually was aware of the drugs hidden in his truck. The Bulgarian transport firm did not take any action upon his arrest, and did not notify the Bulgarian authorities. Only several months later it released a message about a missing driver but with a different name.

Rusev was missing for four months before he was “discovered” in a prison in Iran. In the meantime, his daughter believed that he had married a Russian woman in Armenia.

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