Security Footage Reveals Masked Suspect in 2015 Poisoning of Bulgarian Arms Dealer

Surveillance footage showing a masked suspect in an underground parking lot has been released by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria as evidence in an investigation into the 2015 poisoning of Emilian Gebrev, a Bulgarian arms dealer.

Gebrev, owner of Emco, a Bulgarian small arms and ammunition manufacturing company, was admitted to hospital on April 28, 2015, after a “severe deterioration in his health,” according to a press release issued by the Prosecutor’s Office. After saving his life, doctors determined that he had been poisoned.

This footage, taken from the parking garage of Emco, shows what a separate press release describes as a “masked person moving between the company’s vehicles” on the date of the poisoning attempt.

The release of the video is part of a joint Bulgaria-Britain investigation into Gebrev’s 2015 poisoning to determine whether the Russian nerve agent novichok was involved, The Guardian reported.

Novichok was used in a 2018 attack in Salisbury against Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy who served as a double agent for the UK. According to the investigative website Bellingcat, a suspect in the Skripal novichok attack was reportedly in Bulgaria during Gebrev’s poisoning. Credit: Prosecutor’s Officer of the Republic of Bulgaria via Storyful