US Withdrawing Request For Zhelyaz Andreev Extradition

The US is withdrawing its request for Zhelyaz Andreev's extradition, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said at a briefing in the Council of Ministers, reported bTV. 

"To date, the US is officially withdrawing the request for Andreev's extradition, as maintaining that request would be pointless for the reasons set out in a letter from August 28, 2018 from the Ministry of Justice and the General Prosecutor's Office to the US Department of Justice. I think an unpleasant event for everyone has been prevented," said Borissov. Zhelyaz Andreev thanked the government and said he is the happiest person in Bulgaria today.

Novinite.com recalls that Twenty-nine-year-old Zhelyaz Andreev was detained in April, 2018 by the police in his hometown of Dobrich at the request of the Miami Prosecutor's Office.

Andreev's arrest is in connection with an investigation by the authorities in Florida against 11 people on charges of violating the embargo on trade with Syria. Five of them - Zhelyaz Andreev, Mihaela Nenova, Lyubka Hristova, Iskren Georgiev and Ivan Sergiev are Bulgarians.

All Bulgarians have worked at a call center in Sofia, where they sold parts for Syrian aircraft airplanes that the US authorities claim to be related to terrorist activity. The case became known in March 2017 when the Miami Prosecutor's Office detained the Ali and Arash Kabi brothers and their sister Marjan.

According to the investigation, Arash Kabi, who has two passports, Iranian and French, has ruled AW Tronics, a Miami-registered company for electronics, aviation and oil production.

At the end of 2010, they founded "Arrotronix" in Sofia, which was later renamed to AB Tronix, which the investigators call a "Sofia office" of a Florida company.