Police in Bulgaria have arrested a Russian national in connection with an explosion that left at least 200 people dead at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon in 2020.
Igor Grechushkin has been identified by Lebanese authorities as the owner of Rhosus, a Moldovan-registered general cargo vessel that had carried the shipment of ammonium nitrate that triggered the deadly blast at the port on August 4, 2020.
The incident also injured over 6,500 people and resulted in property damage estimated at around US$15 billion.
The 48-year-old Grechushkin, who also holds Cypriot citizenship, is one of three individuals wanted by Interpol in connection with the explosion.
A court in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia has ordered that he be detained for a maximum period of 40 days, during which time Lebanese authorities must submit the documents necessary for his extradition.
A source within the Bulgarian judiciary told AFP that Grechushkin was taken into custody at Sofia's Vasil Levski Airport upon his arrival from Cyprus earlier this month. The detention has been executed in compliance with an Interpol red notice.
An investigation revealed that Rhosus arrived in Beirut in November 2013 as one of its stops on a scheduled voyage to Mozambique. However, a port state control inspection showed that the ship was unseaworthy, prompting authorities to have it impounded.
In 2014, the 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate included in the ship's cargo was offloaded and transferred to one of the port's warehouses, where it remained until the 2020 explosion. The ship itself sank at the port in 2018.
