Starlink arson near Sofia: Düsseldorf court to rule on extradition to Bulgaria
The two 19-year-old German suspects will stay in custody until a court in Düsseldorf rules on Bulgaria's extradition request. In Sofia, the opposition is still demanding answers.
Symbolic image · Photo: jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
The case of the Starlink antennas set on fire near the village of Plana, south of Sofia, now rests with the German courts. The two German suspects will remain in custody until a court in Düsseldorf has ruled on Bulgaria's extradition request, the Düsseldorf prosecutor's office said, according to Reuters as cited by Bulgaria's BTA news agency. Both men are 19; they were arrested last Friday in North Rhine-Westphalia on a European arrest warrant issued by Bulgaria. The antennas had been set on fire on 9 October.
According to Bulgarian prosecutors, the pair entered the country from Serbia on 9 October, spent only a few hours on Bulgarian soil and then returned to Serbia. According to local German broadcaster Radio K.W., citing the WAZ newspaper, three antennas were destroyed completely and others badly damaged. If convicted of aggravated arson, the men face three to twelve years in prison under Bulgarian law; the motive remains unclear.
In Sofia, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev expects the suspects to be handed over to Bulgaria. He alleged that they had carried out a similar act in another EU member state on 18 October; according to BTA, Lithuania reported an attempted arson at a company storing Starlink equipment. The opposition is not letting go: Democratic Bulgaria MP Ivaylo Mirchev asked how two 19-year-olds could enter and leave the country undetected. An extraordinary sitting of parliament on the case failed for the third time on Wednesday for lack of a quorum.