Wednesday 21 January 2009

The Sofia arrest: comments from Bulgaria

Petar Kostadinov ("Bulgarian prosecutor, art collector conspired to free controversial art dealer - journalist alleges", Sofiaecho.com January 21, 2009) has discussed the arrest and release of Ali Aboutaam in Sofia.
The Sofia City Court (SCC) ... said that because Bulgaria and Egypt did not have an extradition agreement, Abou'Taam could not be sent to Egypt. The court's ruling has been appealed but was denied and Abou'Taam was released.
According to this report Aboutaam left Bulgaria on January 7, 2009 "after his name was taken off the wanted list based on the [Bulgarian] SCC ruling".

If this is the case, why did the Egyptian authorities make a statement on January 15? They were presumably aware that Aboutaam was back in Switzerland.

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