Bulgaria detains five suspects in connection with Istanbul street bombing
Sofia, 19 November 2022 (MIA) – Bulgarian media report that police have detained five suspects in connection with the deadly Istanbul attack. Among the detainees there are three citizens of Moldova and one man of Arab origin, MIA’s Sofia correspondent reports.
One of them is Amran Abdulrami, considered the right-hand man of Bilal Hassan who had a key role in the attack and is wanted by Interpol, who actually assisted the woman who planted the bomb in Istanbul a week ago. The operation of the Bulgarian special services has been carried out under complete secrecy, according to MIA’s Sofia correspondent.
The suspects were detained at the beginning of the week in a hotel on the outskirts of Sofia. They were unarmed during the arrests.
The Bulgarian Prosecutor's Office on Saturday requested permanent detention for four of the suspects, said Siika Mileva, Spokesperson of Bulgaria's Prosecutor General Office. She added that the detainees were found to have assisted the organizers of the attack with logistics. The request for the detention of the persons by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Turkey contains data from the intelligence service MIT, namely that Amran Abdulrami and Bilal Hassan and a group of terrorists intend to carry out repeated attacks, both in Turkey and in an EU country.
According to bTV’s information, Amran Abdulrami was tasked by Bilal Hassan to choose one of three pre-selected companies on the territory of Bulgaria, which were investigated over transporting migrants. Abulrami selected and hired a group of Moldovan persons who, with three vans registered to the company “Bushon”, whose owner is located in a Danube city in Bulgaria, carried out a “casual transport” from Turkey through Bulgaria to Moldova and transported small textiles.
