A Sofia court has ruled that a European arrest warrant will be issued for two Germans charged with setting fire to Starlink antennas at the Plana teleport. The ruling can be appealed within three days, and the court-appointed lawyers of both men will appeal.
Earlier today it emerged that the two have already left Bulgaria. German authorities say their current address is unknown.
The previous development: Suspects in Starlink antenna arson near Plana have left Bulgaria
Both men were born in 2007 and hold German documents. Sofia city prosecutors charged them in absentia on 14 October and today asked the court to hold them in custody. If convicted, they face 3 to 12 years in prison.
Prosecutors say the two drove into Bulgaria in a German-registered car through the Kalotina border checkpoint at 17:37 on 9 October and told officials they were tourists. The fire was set at about 22:25, the prosecution says, and at 23:55 the car left through the same checkpoint towards Serbia. The two spent a few hours in Bulgaria. Prosecutors say the arsonists wore gloves and masks.
The teleport is near the village of Plana, south of Sofia. Its antennas link to the Starlink satellite system. Three of them burned down completely, two were partly destroyed, and three more were damaged.
Lawyer Zhanet Manasieva, the court-appointed defender of one suspect, asked the court to reject both the custody request and the warrant. She said it is established that two people set the fire, but it is disputed whether the suspects are those two. "It may turn out in the end that these are not the people who committed the crime," she told the hearing.
The case file has photos in which the suspects' car is identified, but not the men themselves, said lawyer Zdravko Stoychev, the court-appointed defender of the other suspect. He said this weakens the assumption that they are guilty.
The court rejected the defence's objections as unfounded. It said there is a reasonable suspicion that the two took part in the arson.
The case became public a week ago, when Ivaylo Mirchev, co-chair of Yes, Bulgaria, which is part of Democratic Bulgaria, spoke about it. Asked by BTA a few days ago, chief commissioner Lyubomir Nikolov, acting chief secretary of the interior ministry, confirmed that there are suspects. Prime minister Rumen Radev told a hearing in parliament that the investigation is under way and will produce a result.
Interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev told MPs that the ministry has taken extra steps to guard such sites in Bulgaria, although their owners are responsible for them.