All news

Bulgaria arrests Chechen, Turk placed by Interpol on wanted list

Both men will remain under arrest until the issuance of all the documents necessary for their deportation

SOFIA, August 4 (Itar-Tass) – An ethnic Chechen and a Turk placed by Interpol on the international wanted list in connection with involvement in terrorism were arrested Friday on the Bulgarian-Romanian border.

During passport formalities at the border checkpoint, ID’s issued to them by the German and Dutch authorities were confiscated, said Nadezhda Miteva, a spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor’s Office in the city of Rousse.

She indicated that Mohmad Gadamuri, a 47-year-old Chechen, said he was going to Bulgaria for a vacation with five children but verification showed that the man, who was trying to cross the border illegally, had been placed on a wanted list for involvement in a terrorist act in Russia’s North-Caucasian region of Ingushetia in 2003.

Gadamouri, who sought refuge from justice in Europe, is also charged with an illegal circulation of weaponry and toxic substances. Miteva indicated that he has the status of a refugee in Germany.

Erkan Polater, a 29-year-old man of Turkish origin, has been arrested on charges of involvement in a terrorist organization, the name of which the Prosecutor’s Office did not specify.

Both men will remain under arrest until the issuance of all the documents necessary for their deportation.

Bulgarian authorities have stepped up security measures after a recent terrorist act at Bourgas’s Safarovo international airport where a suicide bomber set off an explosive device in a tourist bus, killing five Israeli citizens and a Bulgarian.