Australian Government sent Bulgaria letter saying John Zakhariev was 'interested' in terrorism, lawyer says
Updated
The lawyer for Australian-Bulgarian citizen John Zakhariev, who is facing a terrorism trial in Bulgaria, said the Australian Government sent the Bulgarian Government a letter warning his client was "interested" in terrorism.
Speaking from the capital Sofia, Zakhariev's lawyer Hristo Botev said his client pleaded not guilty in a hearing last year.
Zakhariev, 21, appeared in Sofia's Special Criminal Court last September charged with training in Bulgaria to become a qualified terrorist with the intention of going to Syria to fight for Daesh, otherwise known as the Islamic State group.
Mr Botev said his client had returned to Bulgaria last year to help his father, who has since passed away, settle into retirement.
He said he did not know why the Bulgarian Government charged his client in the first place.
"They interrogated some people from some shooting ranges where John [Zakhariev] went shooting just for fun. They said that he was behaving absolutely normally," Mr Botev said.
"They interrogated the person that was meeting him here in Bulgaria and they became friends. He did not say that John wanted to recruit him for Daesh."
He said an Australian Government letter sent to Bulgarian authorities last year was incorrect and scant on details, and he had not been able to ask the Federal Government about its contents.
Quoting the letter, Mr Botev said: "'We inform you that this person was in Syria in 2013 ... he is interested in terrorism' ... this is what came from Australia, nothing more."
He said Zakhariev visited Syria for a week in 2013 for humanitarian reasons, but quickly returned to Australia finding it cruel on all sides, saying the propaganda was wrong.
Mr Botev said his client's evidence to the Bulgarian court was that he never fought in Syria.
"The authorities in Australia had information that he was there (in Syria) and when he came to Bulgaria they sent that information to our authorities and probably someone decided to become a hero with this case."
'Ordinary student': principal
Zakhariev is the son of a Vietnamese-Australian mother and a Bulgarian-Australian father, who formerly worked for the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation, including a stint in Vietnam.
He appeared to convert to Islam during or after his time as a high school student at Waverley College in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
In a letter sent to parents yesterday by the Head of Waverley College, Graham Leddie said the school community was saddened by the serious allegations about events that happened after he left school.
"He completed his academic requirements and was an ordinary student," it reads.
"While we don't have all of the facts about the current situation, it is fair to say that young men often have questions and challenges that they go through, and sometimes they make choices that we don't understand.
"Teenage years can be difficult to navigate and so the college ensures that, while students make their own life decisions, they have good input and support readily available to help them make the right choices."
Not an Islamic extremist: lawyer
Mr Botev said his client had always rejected any extremism, especially on his return to Australia three years ago, after what he saw in Syria.
He said Bulgarian prosecutors were mistaken about Zakhariev's religious beliefs.
"Because John's father [was] Bulgarian, [John] came to Bulgaria to help [his father] settle into retirement here last year. We have to make it clear that in the beginning of August [2016] he converted back to Christianity and [the prosecution] said he was training until September to become a terrorist, which is nonsense.
"He wanted to go to a college in Canada to study tourism. He was far away from any ideas of becoming a terrorist."
A family friend of Zakhariev's late father, Svetlomir Zakhariev, said it was sad he died a few weeks ago in Sofia, and that before his death he was helping his son fight the charges.
Mr Botev said this week's court case would focus on expert witnesses giving evidence about his client's email and internet accounts, with a verdict expected in early April.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan declined to comment on the case.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Zakhariev was receiving consular assistance.
Topics: terrorism, law-crime-and-justice, sydney-2000, australia, bulgaria
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