Bulgaria Takes to Court Three Syrians on Charges of Terrorism

Rumyana Arnaudova, spokesperson of the Prosecutor's Office of Bulgaria. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian prosecutors have charged three Syrian citizens with an attempt to illegally cross the border into Turkey and travel onward to Syria to join as fighters the Islamic State and Muslim Brotherhood organizations, Sofia-based bTV broadcaster reported on Wednesday.

The three men, aged 20, 22 and 25 years, had been granted refugee status in Germany. In January 2016 they decided to travel back to their home country to join Islamist militants, bTV said, citing a spokeswoman for the Bulgarian prosecution.  

The Syrians, whose name bTV gave as Almohammad Abdulhamid, Al Abdallah Fadi and Al Fandi Yasim, entered Bulgaria from Greece on 7 February 2016 with the intention to enter Turkey and from there to reach Syria. They spent two days in the cities of Plovdiv and Sofia before travelling to the border with Turkey. 

Prosecutors found evidence of the plans of the three Syrians to become Islamist fighters in Syria on their mobile phones, both text and photo recordings, according to the prosecution spokesperson.

The Syrians were detained by Bulgarian police while attempting to illegally cross the border into Turkey near the town of Svilengrad on 9 February. 

A Bulgarian court will hold a session on the charges against the three Syrian nationals on 2 August, bTV said. The Syrians face sentences of up to 10 years in jail, if convicted.

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