Bulgaria charges 13 alleged ‘radical Islamists’

Following a joint operation in 2010 by Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry and the State Agency for National Security, 13 alleged members of radical Islamist organised Al Waqf al Islam have been charged with preaching Salafism and the imposition of Sharia law, it emerged on June 18 2012.

The District Prosecutor’s Office in Pazardzhik said that charges had been laid in connection with leadership and membership of an illegal organisation.

The organisation reportedly had operated in Bulgaria’s towns of Smolyan, Blagoevgrad and Pazardzhik, as well as villages elsewhere in the Rhodope region. (...)