Bulgaria hunts German suspects after Starlink fire
- Bulgarian court approved European arrest warrants for two 19-year-old German nationals suspected of arson on eight Starlink antennas near Sofia.
- Court said gathered evidence gives reasonable grounds to suspect the two, following prosecutors’ request.
- On October 9, attackers damaged a site of 18 antennas: three destroyed, two partially burned, three others damaged.
- The two were charged in absentia on October 14 and Bulgaria issued national arrest warrants on October 16.
- Similar Starlink attacks occurred in Poland and Lithuania; Polish blaze led to arrests, Lithuania blamed Russia for an attempted arson.
A Bulgarian court on Monday approved issuing a European arrest warrant for two 19-year-old German nationals suspected of setting fire to eight Starlink antennas near the capital Sofia.
“The evidence gathered makes it possible to conclude that there are reasonable grounds to suspect the involvement of the two defendants,” the court in Sofia ruled, granting the request of prosecutors.
Ukraine uses Starshield, the military-grade satellite service of the Starlink system controlled by SpaceX owner Elon Musk, for battlefield communications.
The two suspects, identified as Tirpan B. and Zeka I., are accused of deliberately setting fire to the antennas on the evening of October 9.
Of the 18 antennas installed at the site in a mountainous region south of Sofia, three were completely destroyed, two were partially burned and three others were damaged, prosecutors said.
The two men were charged in absentia on October 14 and Bulgaria issued a national arrest warrant for them on October 16.
Another fire broke out at a Starlink satellite communications station in central Poland in September, with the country’s digital affairs minister calling the blaze an act of “sabotage”.
German police have detained three men and a woman over the Polish blaze, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk described as an “act of hybrid warfare”.
Two of those arrested are Turkish nationals. The nationalities of the other suspects have not been publicly disclosed.
On Sunday, Lithuania’s prime minister said Russia was likely behind an attempted arson attack on a company in the Baltic state hosting communication hardware for Starlink satellites.
