A Bulgarian court has denied Lebanon’s request to extradite the owner of the ship linked to the 2020 Beirut port explosion, but approved a key judicial step that allows Lebanon’s lead investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar, to question the suspect on Bulgarian soil, according to information obtained by Voice of Lebanon.

While the Bulgarian judges refused to hand over the suspect, they granted Bitar’s request to conduct an interrogation in Bulgaria; an unusual arrangement that may allow the Lebanese investigation to move forward despite the failed extradition.

According to Voice of Lebanon, Beirut had provided assurances that the death penalty would not be implemented, contradicting claims made by the suspect’s lawyer. However, Bulgarian authorities judged those guarantees insufficient and declined the extradition.

Earlier on Wednesday, the suspect’s attorney, Ekaterina Dimitrova, told AFP that “Lebanon did not provide guarantees that, if he were sentenced to death, the sentence would not be carried out,” 

The ruling can be appealed within the next seven days before the Sofia Court of Appeal, whose decision will be final, and the suspect will remain in custody until then.

Judicial sources said the hearing in Bulgaria has been scheduled for the 17th of this month, and the necessary procedures are already underway.

The suspect is tied to the vessel that brought the ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut’s port before it exploded in 2020, killing more than 200 people, wounding thousands, and flattening entire districts of the capital.