Three officials investigated about illegal exports of military hardware to Sudan

Bulgarian News Network

SOFIA, Oct 16, 2003 (bnn) — Bulgaria’s authorities are investigating two defense industry officials and a chief of a private trade firm on charges of illegally exporting military hardware to Sudan, officials said Thursday.

Ruslan Ivanov, director of Beta tracked vehicles maker, his predecessor Lyudmil Georgiev and Nikolai Kratunov, chief of a private trading company, are accused of smuggling, document forgery and embezzlement, the National Investigation Service that conducts preliminary criminal investigations said in a statement.

It would not disclose when the exports were made and what their amount was.

Sudan was under UN sanctions from 1996 until 2001. The United States has listed the country among those supporting terrorism in 1993 and the European Union has imposed an arms embargo on it in 1994, because of the civil war raging there since 1983.

Beta exported to Sudan an unspecified amount of parts for self-propelled howitzers, which it formally reported as parts for construction machines, the private BGNES news agency said.

Beta, located in Cherven Bryag, 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Sofia, sold the hardware through Kratunov’s private trade firm RIK in Kazanlak, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Sofia.

Three officials of another state defense industry firm, TEREM, and two private arms dealers are currently on trial for exporting infantry fighting vehicles transmission parts to Syria last year.