Police in Duisburg have detained two 19-year-old German citizens on suspicion of setting fire to Starlink antennas near the village of Plana, south of Sofia. They appeared before the district court in the city on Friday.
Bulgaria charged them in their absence on 14 October. A national arrest warrant followed on 16 October, then a European one. On 19 October it became clear that the two had left Bulgaria and that no one knew where they were.
More on this story: Suspects in Starlink antenna arson near Plana have left Bulgaria
Prosecutors are expected to ask that they be held in custody until they are handed over to Bulgaria.
The fire at Starlink's Plana teleport broke out on 9 October and hit 8 of its 18 antennas. Three burned down completely and five others were badly damaged.
Bulgarian investigators say the two crossed the Serbian-Bulgarian border as tourists on 9 October, in a Volkswagen with German plates. They left Bulgaria that evening.
Their court-appointed lawyers asked the court not to issue the arrest warrants. They said security camera footage shows masked people whose faces cannot be identified. The court ruled that the physical evidence and witness statements were enough and issued the arrest warrant.
If convicted in Bulgaria, the two face 3 to 12 years in prison, the penalty the law sets for deliberate arson causing considerable damage.
Starlink is the satellite network of SpaceX, the US company owned by Elon Musk. The network plays a big role in internet links in Ukraine.
For several weeks, Starlink sites in Europe have been set on fire more and more often. On 23 September, parts of a ground station of the network burned in Wola Krobowska, about 50 km south of Warsaw. No link to the Plana fire has been proven so far.