Bulgaria arrests Russian owner of ship at centre of Beirut port blast that killed 218

The Russian owner of a cargo ship linked to a supply of ammonium nitrate at the centre of the massive Beirut port explosion in 2020 has been arrested in Bulgaria, Lebanese judicial officials said on Monday.

The arrest of Igor Grechushkin comes nearly five years after a Lebanese investigative judge issued two arrest warrants through Interpol for him and the vessel's captain, Boris Prokoshev, also a Russian national.

The judicial officials said papers are being prepared requesting the transfer of Grechushkin to Lebanon for questioning.

They said that if Grechushkin is not handed over, Lebanese investigators could travel to Bulgaria to question him there.

The four Lebanese judicial officials said Grechushkin, who also has Cypriot nationality, was arrested last week at Vasil Levski Sofia airport after arriving on a flight from Cyprus.

They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Authorities in Bulgaria have been approached for comment.

Probe ongoing

The 4 August 2020 blast killed at least 218 people and wounded more than 6,000 others. It devastated large swaths of Beirut and caused billions of euros in damages.

No Lebanese official has been convicted in connection with the incident.

Earlier this year, Lebanon elected President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and a Cabinet on a reformist platform who pledged to complete a probe and hold the perpetrators to account.

Authorities said the disaster was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a vast stockpile of industrial chemical ammonium nitrate had been haphazardly stored for years. 

The blast struck amid an economic collapse that the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in recent history and which is widely blamed on a governing elite accused of corruption and mismanagement.

Since its early days, the probe into the explosion has faced a slew of political and legal challenges.

In December 2020, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers with negligence.

As political pressure mounted, Sawan was removed from the case.

But investigative judge Tarek Bitar summoned senior political, judicial and security officials in July in a renewed push to close the case.