The Sofia City Prosecution Office brought five people to trial for participation in an organized criminal group, smuggling and the murder of 18 Afghan citizens, its press centre said on Tuesday.
On February 17, 2023, the bodies of 18 illegal migrants, who had apparently suffocated to death, were found on a truck near the village of Lokorsko (16 km north of Sofia).
The indictment states that 52 Afghans were loaded into a truck from the area of the village of Zidarovo, Burgas Region, Bulgarian News Agency reported.
According to the prosecution, two of the defendants saw that the Afghans could not breathe normally because they were pressed tightly together, but they closed the lids of the containers, fastened their seat belts and drove off.
