Bulgaria arrests shipowner linked to deadly 2020 Beirut port blast

The 2020 disaster was one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions. (Photo/Reuters)

A shipowner wanted over a 2020 blast at Beirut port that killed more than 220 people has been arrested in Bulgaria, officials have said.

The August 4, 2020, disaster was one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions, ravaging swathes of the Lebanese capital and wounding more than 6,500 people.

Authorities have said the blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.

Beirut authorities identified Igor Grechushkin, a 48-year-old Russian and Greek-administered Southern Cyprus citizen, as the owner of the Rhosus, the ship that transported the ammonium nitrate.

Interpol issued red notices for him and two others in 2021.

Grechushkin "has been placed in detention for a maximum duration of 40 days by a court decision on September 7, confirmed on appeal," a Sofia city court spokeswoman said.

The authorities requesting extradition have 40 days to send the necessary documents to effect such a move, according to Bulgarian law.

Held at airport

Grechushkin was held on an Interpol red notice at Sofia airport on September 5 upon his arrival from Paphos in Greek-administered Southern Cyprus, a Bulgarian judicial source confirmed.

Wanted by the Lebanese judicial authorities, he is being sought for allegedly "introducing explosives into Lebanon, a terrorist act that resulted in the death of a large number of people, and disabling machinery with the intent of sinking a ship", the Bulgarian prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Grechushkin was arrested during a routine check of passengers arriving from Paphos, according to border police.

"He offered no resistance. He repeatedly insisted on speaking to a lawyer and, after consulting one, he fully cooperated," Zdravko Samuilov, head of the border police at Sofia Airport, told reporters on Tuesday.

He informed the officers that he came to Bulgaria "for tourism", Samuilov added.

Beirut is preparing to request the extradition of Grechushkin, according to a Lebanese judicial source.

Authorities rely "on Grechushkin's statements and on the information he holds to shed light on essential aspects of the investigation,” the source said.

The Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged cargo ship sailing from Georgia and bound for Mozambique, is widely understood to have brought the fertiliser to Beirut in 2013.

The Lebanese source said investigators would seek to determine "whether the cargo that departed from Georgia was genuinely destined for Mozambique or if the true destination was Beirut, and whether the ship had previously transported other shipments of ammonium nitrate".

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Source: TRT