Bulgarian court sentences two Lebanese Hezbollah members to life imprisonment for 2012 Burgas bombing that killed 6 and injured 38

SOFIA — Eight years after two members of Lebanese Hezbollah killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver and left 38 others injured in a bombing at the airport of the seaside destination of Burgas, Bulgaria, the Bulgarian judiciary sentenced the two men responsible to life imprisonment on Monday.

The two men, Meliad Farah (39) and Hassan El Hajj Hassan (32), were tried in absentia.

During the attack, a dual Lebanese-French citizenship detonated a bomb in a backpack he was carrying close to the bus. The attacker, identified as Mohamad Hassan El Husseini, was killed in the attack.

While Hezbollah denies involvement, Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor said there was conclusive evidence that Hezbollah’s external security unit was directly involved in providing financial and material assistance to the bombers.

According to investigators, the materials used in the attack were linked to bombs stored by Hezbollah in Cyprus, whose main component was ammonium nitrate. It is also the same material used by Hezbollah in the 1994 Argentina bombing that killed 85 people.

The Burgas bombing was the deadliest attack on Israelis outside their country since 2004.