A trial against 13 Bulgarian Muslim religious leaders for preaching a radical form of Islam heard key witnesses Monday, while nationalists demonstrated at the court in the southern town of Pazardzhik to protest “Muslim pressure” on its work.

The 12 men and one woman — imams, mufti Islamic scholars and teachers — have been charged with founding a local branch of the extremist Al Waqf-Al Islami group in the southern regions of Smolyan, Blagoevgrad and Pazardzhik.

The Netherlands-based but Saudi-funded organisation is [...]

A suicide bomber who killed six people at an airport in Bulgaria last month may have had an accomplice, authorities said Thursday. A computer-generated photo of the man was released.

The image of the unshaven white man, with short dark hair and a chubby build, was accompanied by a picture of a fake driver’s license from the US state of Michigan. In the photo, it also appears the man is wearing a wig.

Authorities said they have no idea who the man [...]

The suicide bomber who killed six people including five Israelis had accomplices and may have entered Bulgaria from Europe’s Schengen passport-free area, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said Tuesday.

“It might turn out he came from a Schengen member state. This is a lead we are checking at the moment with several other EU partner services,” Borisov said, calling the bomber and his suspected accomplices behind last Wednesday’s blast at Burgas airport “extremely experienced”.

“From what we can see, they came a month [...]

Bulgarian media on Thursday named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas on Wednesday as 36-year-old Mehdi Ghezali.

Ghezali reportedly arrived in Bulgaria five weeks before the bombing and arrived at the airport via taxi, Channel 2 reported. He was also reportedly given the bomb by someone else, but no further details were provided.

There was no independent confirmation of the veracity [...]

An explosion has ripped through a bus carrying Israeli holiday-makers in Bulgaria and killed at least six people in an attack the government in Israel blamed on arch foe Iran.

More than 30 people were wounded in the attack against tourists headed for Bulgarian Black Sea resorts that also left two nearby buses in flames.

Witnesses described how panicked passengers jumped from bus windows and bodies lay strewn on the ground with their clothes torn off as ambulance sirens wailed and black [...]