Bulgaria denies firm linked to explosive devices sent to Hezbollah
SOFIA, BULGARIA-SEPTEMBER 19: Picture taken on September 19th, 2024 in Sofia, Bulgaria shows the building where the office of ‘Norta Global Ltd’ is supposedly located according to company contacts. The Bulgarian State National Security Agency announced that Norta Global, a company registered in the capital Sofia, had no connection to the pagers, which exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands, the state-run BTA news agency reported. ( Borislav Troshev - Anadolu Agency )
News/World (Kumasi, Ghana) Sep 20 (Futball Surgery News)- Bulgaria has denied reports of its firm linked to exploded devices used by Hezbollah in attacks in Lebanon killing combined more than 30 people and injuring thousands in separate explosives on Tuesday and Wednesday .
Bulgarian authorities said on Friday a company based in Sofia had nothing to do with the delivery of exploding communications devices to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies detonated across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people, injuring nearly 3,000 and generating panic.
Hezbollah and several international media organisations have blamed Israel for sabotaging the electronic devices. Israel has not made any public comment.
“Following verifications, it has been indisputably established that no communication equipment corresponding to those that exploded on 17 September was imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria,” the National Security Agency (SANS) said.
The SANS said on Thursday it had launched an investigation after Hungarian website Telex said Norta Global – a company registered in Sofia by a Norwegian, had imported the devices and then delivered them to Hezbollah.
According to the AFP, On Friday the SANS said the company and its owner had “not carried out any transactions linked to the sale or purchase of the merchandise” or that “fall under laws on terrorism financing”.
Norta Global, which was founded in April 2022 by Rinson Jose, last year declared revenue of €650,000 ($725,000) for consulting activities outside the EU, reports the AFP.
Top officials in Taiwan have insisted the communications devices, which carried the brand name of local company Gold Apollo, were not from there (see 6.59am BST).
Gold Apollo head Hsu Ching-kuang instead pointed the finger at Hungary-based partner BAC Consulting KFT, which Gold Apollo had allowed to use its trademark.
But a Hungarian government spokesperson said BAC Consulting KFT was “a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary”.
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