Bulgaria confirms arrest of Russian owner of a ship at the center of the 2020 Beirut port blast
The destroyed port warehouses at the scene of the Aug. 4 massive explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 28, 2020. Credit: AP/Hussein Malla
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian authorities confirmed Tuesday they arrested a Russian ship owner wanted in Lebanon whose vessel is linked to a cargo of ammonium nitrate at the center of the massive 2020 port explosion in Beirut.
Igor Grechushkin, 48, was arrested at Sofia International Airport on Sept. 6 upon arriving from the Cypriot city of Paphos, according to Zdravko Samuilov, head of the border police at the airport in the Bulgarian capital.
Grechushkin, who holds a dual Russian-Cypriot citizenship, “did not resist arrest, cooperated, and nothing suspicious was found in his luggage,” the police chief said.
The arrest, which was first reported by Lebanese officials on Tuesday, was based on an Interpol red notice. Following a court order, Grechushkin was placed in detention for a maximum of 40 days, Samuilov said.
Bulgaria has also requested the necessary documents for Grechushkin before he can be extradited to Lebanon. A Lebanese investigative judge issued two arrest warrants through Interpol five years ago, one for Grechushkin and one for the vessel’s captain, Boris Prokoshev, also a Russian citizen.
The Aug. 4, 2020 blast killed at least 218 people, injured more than 6,000, devastated large swaths of Beirut and caused billions of dollars in damage.
No Lebanese official has been convicted in connection with the explosion.
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