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Lebanese investigating judge Tarek Bitar is expected to travel to Bulgaria on Wednesday to question Igor Grechushkin, a Russian-Cypriot ship operator linked to the 2020 Beirut port explosion, a Lebanese judicial source said.
The source emphasized that the extradition process is separate from the investigation. Bulgarian authorities have been “very cooperative,” and questioning will proceed regardless of the status of the extradition request, the source told OCCRP partner Daraj, a Lebanon-based independent digital media. Any Bulgarian reservations relate to the death penalty, which Lebanon has sought to address through formal assurances and documentation, the source added.
Grechushkin’s lawyer, Ekaterina Dimitrova, said the Bulgarian court refused Lebanon’s extradition request on December 10, citing insufficient guarantees that her client would not face the death penalty. “Lebanese law provides for capital punishment for certain offenses, including terrorism charges, several of which Grechushkin faces. In my view, no one can guarantee that, given the charges he faces, he would not be convicted,” she told OCCRP.
Dimitrova added that the investigation in Lebanon has not yet reached a judicial stage. Bulgarian prosecutors have until December 17 to appeal the decision, after which the case will be heard by the Sofia Appellate Court. Dimitrova said she could not comment further until any new assurances or communications are received from Lebanese authorities.
Mariana Fadoulian, head of the association representing families of the Beirut port blast victims, said the group met Lebanon’s foreign minister and the Bulgarian ambassador to discuss the case and Grechushkin’s extradition. Fadoulian noted that Bulgarian authorities have said they did not receive sufficient guarantees regarding the death penalty, despite an earlier visit by Lebanon’s president to Bulgaria. She also said a travel ban on Judge Bitar had been lifted by another Lebanese judge, allowing him to travel.
Last month, a Bulgarian court had postponed a hearing on Lebanon’s extradition request for Grechushkin, pending written assurances that he would not face the death penalty if returned to Lebanon. Grechushkin was arrested in Sofia in September after arriving from Cyprus, following an Interpol Red Notice. Lebanese judges requested his extradition earlier this year as part of the investigation into the August 4, 2020, explosion that killed at least 218 people and devastated large parts of Beirut.
He was widely reported to be the owner of the MV Rhosus, the ship that carried nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate to Beirut in 2013. Investigations later found he held a lease on the vessel, which was owned by a Cypriot shipping magnate.
