Bulgaria orders extradition to France of Paris Holocaust memorial vandalism suspect

SOFIA — A Bulgarian court has approved the extradition to France of one of three Bulgarians wanted over the vandalism of Paris’s main Holocaust memorial in May.

Georgi Filipov, 35, is accused of daubing red hand marks on the memorial’s Wall of the Righteous, which lists 3,900 people honored for protecting Jews during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II.

The vandalism was staged during heightened tensions in France over the ongoing war in Gaza.

The court rules that Filipov be detained until his transfer. Both decisions are subject to appeal within a five-day deadline, the judge says.

French prosecutors launched a criminal probe for damage to a protected historical building with national, ethnic, racial or religious motives after the memorial was defaced. Other buildings in central Paris were also daubed.

In an interview with AFP in August, Filipov denied that he had acted out of racial or religious motives and insisted his act was “hooliganism” after drinking too much alcohol.

Yesterday, the Sofia Appeals Court postponed until October 2 a hearing on the extradition of another suspect sought by France in the case, 27-year-old Kiril Milushev.

A third Bulgarian, Nikolay Ivanov, who was detained in Croatia, agreed in August to be transferred to France.