Bulgarian arms plant bosses arrested for violating Sudan embargo

BBC Monitoring European

By Bulgarian news agency BGNES

SOFIA, Oct 16, 2003 — Two directors of the Beta arms-producing plant in Cherven Bryag have been arrested. According to preliminary information, they have been accused of violating the arms embargo imposed on Sudan by the United Nations.

Executive Director Ruslan Ivanov has been arrested for smuggling, embezzling, and document crimes. Former Executive Director Lyudmil Georgiev was arrested late yesterday on the basis of the same accusations. The two have sold to Sudan nests and spare parts for the 122-mm howitzer in violation of the arms embargo imposed by the United Nations on Sudan in 2001.

The two directors have embezzled almost 1 million leva received from the illegal sale. During the investigation the former arms executives committed many document crimes, aimed at concealing the violation of the arms embargo.

The National Investigation Service, on the basis of a special decree issued by Chief Prosecutor Nikola Filchev, has been entrusted with the case. General Rumen Milanov, chief of the National Service for Combating Organized Crime, has been informed about the arrest of the Beta company directors, but he refused to comment. “Why should I tell you what we have done and whether my service has done anything,” Milanov said. Asked how for many years the company has exported weapons, Milanov said: “Naturally, I will never say this.”