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Bulgarian driver might face Death Penalty in Iran
Novinite - World News
Jun 29, 2009
The trial against Bulgarian truck driver Zhivko Rusev over drugs smuggling charges begins in Iran today.
The Bulgarian Embassy in Tehran has hired local lawyer Moghaddam Far to defend Rusev. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said earlier that the lawyer had been recommended to Bulgaria by employees of the Turkish Embassy in Iran.
If proven guilty, Rusev faces the deathe penalty, in accordance with Iranian law, which holds that the punishment for illegal drug trafficking is death by hanging.
In September 2008, the 55-year-old Rusev, from the southern Bulgarian town of Galabovo, was arrested in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz in an anti-drug operation. The authorities discovered 135 kilograms of heroin in his truck.
Rusev's daughter says she thought her father had married a Russian woman in Armenia and did not know he was in jail in Iran.
In addition, Rusev's transport company waited for some time before telling the police one of their truck drivers was missing, but then gave the authorities a wrong name. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry only learned about the case in January 2009.
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