None of Bulgaria Bomb Suspects Entered Lebanon

Local Editor

Al-Akhbar Lebanese daily revealed Saturday that none of the people accused by the Bulgarian authorities of carrying out Burgas bombing in July 2012 has any name linked to Hizbullah.

This comes as the Bulgarian Interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov claimed that the men belong to the military wing of the party. "The names of the suspect aren't Ali, Hassan, Hussein or Jafar ...," the daily reported, and pointed out that "They are Jacques Philippe Martin, Ralph William Rico, and Brian Jaimpson."

According to the French "Le Figaro" daily, that quoted Bulgarian security sources, these men are two Canadians and an Australian.
"The first is almost described by the French newspaper as a "self-sacrifice martyr" as it reported that he bombed the bus in Burgas," al-Akhbar mentioned.
It further quoted the French newspaper as saying: "One of the other two men is the mastermind of the cell. After the bombing, they returned to Lebanon, via a European country. "

On this regard, al-Akhbar unveiled that "the Lebanese security services were busy the past two days by scrutinizing this information."
"Quickly, it was obvious that the three names did not appear on the computer screens of the Lebanese General Security Directorate," it added.
The newspaper quoted Lebanese security sources, as saying: "In its research, the public security used the three names as mentioned in the "Le Figaro"," adding that " the Lebanese Security took into consideration that the way of writing the names might differ from the way they are typed in the French report."

Simply, the research clarified that the names listed in the French daily had never entered Lebanon, neither before nor after Burgas explosion.
Meanwhile, more than one Lebanese security source confirmed to al-Akhbar that "the Bulgarian authorities never asked the Lebanese security apparatus whether Jacques Philippe Martin, Ralph William Rico, and Brian Jaimpson had entered Lebanon before."

Source: al-Akhbar daily, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org