(AFP) Bulgarian prosecutors indicted six people on Saturday over the deaths of 18 Afghans who suffocated in a truck later left abandoned outside the capital Sofia.
The discovery Friday was the deadliest incident linked to people smuggling in Bulgaria as the country struggles with a surge in illicit border crossings.
The truck was transporting 52 Afghans packed under wooden planks who had arrived from Turkey and were heading toward Western Europe via Serbia, initial investigations showed.
The 18 victims died from suffocation.
Six Bulgarians, including the alleged ringleader of the smuggling group, have been indicted in the case, Hristo Krastev, a spokesman for the Sofia Public Prosecutor’s Office, told reporters.
