Israel detains man, 32, over killing of former Sofia University associate professor in Sofia metro

The man from Bat Yam was held on an international warrant 29 days after the beating in the lift at Joliot-Curie station. A court will now hear the case for his extradition to Bulgaria.

Israeli police said on Friday, 13 November, that they had detained a 32-year-old Bat Yam resident on suspicion of involvement in the killing of associate professor Andrey Atanasov, 83, a longtime lecturer at the Faculty of Biology at Sofia University. The man was arrested on an international warrant. Israeli authorities also issued a temporary arrest order to hold him for extradition to Bulgaria.

Atanasov was beaten on 15 October in the lift at Joliot-Curie metro station in Sofia and died in hospital. The arrest came 29 days after the attack.

The beating in the Joliot-Curie lift

At about 1pm on 15 October, passers-by saw a badly hurt man in the station lift and called 112. An emergency team found him in a coma with multiple injuries and took him to St Anna university hospital, where he died hours later. Severe head wounds led investigators to believe he was hit with a blunt object. The media gave heavy blood loss as the cause of death, but no forensic report has been published.

The Telegraf newspaper, citing sources in the interior ministry, reported that camera footage shows the attack began before the lift and went on inside it. The attacker wears a peaked cap and has the collar of his jacket turned up. In footage from earlier days near the station, he also wears a medical mask. Investigators are checking a theory that he had been lying in wait for the professor for two days.

Atanasov worked in the Department of Biophysics and Radiobiology at the Faculty of Biology. Bulgarian media describe him as an associate professor and former lecturer at Sofia University, while Israeli media call him a professor.

Nobody had been detained the day after the beating. Nikolay Naydenov, chief executive of Metropoliten, told bTV at the time that the metro is safe, that there are cameras in the area and that he expected the interior ministry to find the culprit. Sofia city police are leading the pre-trial investigation into murder, under the supervision of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office.

The arrest in Bat Yam

Officers from the Ayalon anti-crime unit in the Tel Aviv police district detained the man. Israeli police said the unit worked on the case with the operational coordination department of the police intelligence division, the international department of Israel's State Attorney's Office and Bulgarian police. Officers gathered evidence, tracked down the suspect and obtained a temporary arrest order for extradition. He is due to appear in court in the proceedings to hand him over to Bulgaria.

His name has not been released. The Maariv newspaper says he has no criminal record. He is presumed innocent until a verdict comes into force.

Israeli media point to money as the likely motive. Maariv writes about a business dispute, while Haaretz says police believe the two argued over money and the suspect wanted to get hold of the lecturer's property. The Mako website adds that police are checking whether the man travelled to Bulgaria specifically to carry out the killing.

The reports also differ on some points. Israeli police speak of a murdered Israeli citizen, while Haaretz describes him as a citizen of both Israel and Bulgaria. Bulgarian reports in October did not mention Israeli citizenship. The police statement puts the killing on 14 October, while Bulgarian reports say the beating and death were on 15 October.

It is also unclear how the arrest fits with the October account. At that time Telegraf, citing interior ministry sources, wrote that the suspect was a young Greek citizen who had been put on a wanted list. According to the paper, he had known the professor for years, the two had quarrelled, and after the attack the man left the country in a rental car. This information was never officially confirmed. So far there is no word on whether the man held in Bat Yam is the same person.

Time limits under Israeli law

Israel's 1954 Extradition Law allows a person to be detained before a request for their handover is filed in court, including when a request from the other country is still expected (Article 6). Article 7 sets out the time limits.

Source: Israel's Extradition Law, 1954.

For Israeli citizens, the law sets extra conditions (Article 1a). A person who was both a citizen and a resident of Israel at the time of the offence can be handed over only to stand trial. Even then, the requesting country must first promise to return him to Israel to serve any prison sentence there. He can waive this return himself.

A hearing before an Israeli court will follow. No date has been given.