The press center of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, has reported that the city’s prosecutor’s office will be trying five individuals on charges of participating in an organized criminal group and human trafficking, which led to the deaths of 18 Afghan refugees in 2023.
The Sofia municipality stated in a press release that the date for the trial has not yet been determined.
It should be noted that in late January 2023, the bodies of 18 Afghan migrants were found in a truck near the village of Lukorsko, about 16 kilometers from Sofia. The truck was carrying more than 50 people who were hidden in a secret compartment beneath a load of wood.
The Bulgarian news agency reported on Tuesday, April 1, citing the Sofia prosecutor’s office, that two of the accused observed that Afghan citizens were unable to breathe normally due to “being tightly packed together.”
The report indicated that despite witnessing this problem, the individuals closed the truck’s doors and drove away.
The Bulgarian news agency also quoted the prosecutor’s office stating that the victims died due to “suffocation in a very painful situation.”
The indictment stated that 52 individuals from Afghanistan were loaded into the truck from the area of the village of Didiarovo in Burgas province.
The truck contained two separate metal compartments covered with wooden planks, which acted as separate rooms.
It is worth mentioning that the bodies of these refugees were transferred from Sofia to Kabul months after the incident occurred, in May 2023.
At that time, the interim government cited delays in the issuance of court rulings in Bulgaria and banking restrictions for transferring money to airlines as reasons for the delay in repatriating the bodies of these refugees.
