Five years on, is more happening than meets the eye with Burgas terrorism trial?

As relatives of victims of the Burgas bombing journeyed to Bulgaria on Tuesday to commemorate the terrorist attack’s fifth anniversary, one wonders whether there more than meets the eye going on with the case?

On one hand, five years have passed with little to show in starting the trial’s substantive phase of calling witnesses so any kind of verdict can become visible on the horizon.

On the other, Israeli victims’ lawyer Yaki Rand told The Jerusalem Post recently, “There is a lot more going on behind the scenes.”

According to the Bulgarian government and US and EU authorities, three Hezbollah operatives blew up an Israeli tour bus in the seaside resort of Burgas on July 18, 2012, killing five Israelis and their Bulgarian Muslim bus driver. The bomb also killed Lebanese-French national Muhammad Hassan El-Husseini, who brought the explosive onto the bus. Two suspects – Lebanese-Australian Meliad Farah and Lebanese-Canadian Hassan El Hajj Hassan – fled to Lebanon. Lebanese authorities have ignored Bulgarian extradition requests.

The trial at a special terrorism court in Sofia moved ahead in absentia because of the fugitive status of the Hezbollah operatives.

The Israelis slain were Maor Harush, Itzik Kolangi, Amir Menashe, Elior Price, and Kochava Shriky and her unborn child. The Bulgarian victim was Mustafa Kyosov. The explosion wounded 32 other Israelis.

As a result of the large number of witnesses and wounded, the trial has been moving slowly. Bulgarian media reported on Tuesday that the Sofia court may convene to hear the Israeli witnesses at its embassy in Tel Aviv to expedite the proceedings. The postponement of trial on Tuesday is the sixth delay in the most high-profile Hezbollah terrorist attack of this decade.

Rand is quick to point out that the trial, as opposed to the criminal investigation, really only started even at a procedural level about one year ago. From that viewpoint, trial delays are only responsible for one year of justice delayed, not the full five years.

According to Rand, while he is succeeding in bringing the disparate families together in an organized group, moving the case forward has proven to be a considerable challenge.

Whether it is differing agendas, emotional states or different modes of keeping and absorbing evidence, the process has been highly complex. Some victims’ families have only very recently joined the group.

Rand would not speak on record about political and diplomatic delays on the Bulgarian side due to the changeover of law enforcement officials and evolving politics, but the Post has sources who say these issues have also caused delay and required careful navigating by Rand and anyone hoping to push forward.

When asked about the Hezbollah attack, Milena Petrova, the deputy chief of mission at Bulgaria’s embassy, told the Post, “We received a reply [from the Foreign Ministry in Sofia] that Bulgarian judicial authorities are an independent institution and we can neither comment nor make any prognosis about the case. Otherwise it could be considered in a non-favorable light and could have a negative impact on the course of dealing with a particular case.”

Bulgaria’s government has changed numerous times since then-interior minister Tsvetlin Yovchev said in 2012: “There are clear signs that say

Hezbollah is behind the Burgas bombing.” The shifting governments in Bulgaria – some of which haven leaned more toward Russia – may help to explain the slow movement of the trial.

Jacob Price, a representative of the families at the ceremony in Bulgaria on Tuesday, said, “Another year has passed since you left us. We have gathered here missing you. There is no end to the deep sorrow in honoring your memory. You remain in our hearts always.

“The Bulgarian nation and government have remained true friends of us, the families of the victims, and of the State of Israel... they are doing all they can to preserve this bond of blood,” said Price.

Still, he added, “Five years is enough time to understand and debate” the legal issues in order to move on with the trial, especially when for the families “time stopped since you [the deceased victims] breathed your last breath... in that cursed summer of 2012.”

Furthermore, Price called on Europe as a whole to “take off the gloves to fight terrorism.”

Another representative of the families, Itzhak Shriky, told the Post that even as he eventually moved on, married and had a new daughter, “It was a grave attack... it changed my entire life... everything flipped around 180 degrees .... We continue to live in the shadow of pain.”

Ambassador to Bulgaria Irit Lillian spoke at Tuesday’s remembrance event in Burgas.

A verdict convicting the Hezbollah operatives could bring life to the effort in the EU to designate Hezbollah’s entire organization as terrorist. The 2012 terrorist designation only targeted Hezbollah’s so-called “military wing.” The Lebanese militia operates its political operation in Europe, including fund-raising and recruitment efforts.

The US Congress in 2016 called on the EU to proscribe all of Hezbollah as a terrorist entity. A recent German intelligence report said 950 Hezbollah members are operating in the Federal Republic.

In 2015, a Cypriot court convicted Hezbollah operative Hussein Bassam Abdallah for collecting explosives to use against Israelis. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

In 2013, Taleb Yaacoub, a dual Lebanese-Swedish national and a Hezbollah operative, was convicted in Cyprus for plotting to murder Israelis. A Cypriot court sentenced Yaacoub to four years in prison. •