Lebanon’s Health Minister confirmed a series of explosions across the country which lead to deaths of at least eight people and injuring 2,750 others. The blasts were caused by exploding handheld pagers. Health Minister Firaas Abiad further informed that over 200 people are in critical condition after the communication devices exploded on Tuesday. He also added that the victims are receiving treatment in over 150 hospitals.
On Wednesday, walkie-talkies and solar equipment exploded in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon in a second wave of attacks targeting devices a day after pagers used by Hezbollah blew up, according to the media reports. At least 20 people were killed and more than 450 wounded in the second wave, the Health Ministry said. According to the media reports, Bulgarian company, Norta Global Ltd, was behind the pager’s deal. Norta Global was founded by Rinson Jose, a Norwegian citizen. Rinson Jose was born in Wayanad and moved to Norway after completing his MBA.
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However, after thousands of pagers being carried by Hezbollah members exploded, the focus shifted to locating the manufacturer. The pagers which exploded with Hezbollah members carried the brand name of Taiwanese company Gold Apollo. However, Hsu Ching-Kuang, founder and president of Gold Apollo said that the ‘product is not ours. It only had our brand on it’. The Gold Apollo president associated the exploding pagers to a Hungary-based company, BAC Consulting. ‘Those pagers were made by the Budapest-based company, which had a three-year licensing agreement with his firm’, said Hsu.
BAC Consulting was simply an intermediary in the transaction, according to the media reports. Telex reported that BAC didn’t carry out any activity, it did not even have an office, and it was only registered at the address. BAC Consulting is a shell firm set up by Israel. The managing director of BAC Consulting, Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, dealt with a Bulgarian company, Norta Global Ltd, based in Sofia.
‘Although on paper it was BAC Consulting that signed the contract with Gold Apollo, Norta Global was actually the one behind the [pagers] deal,’, Telex reported. It was the Middle East-focused website The Cradle that linked Norta Global to Rinson Jose. Norta Global was founded in 2022 by Norwegian citizen Rinson Jose. It was located at a residential address in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, and registered with a headquarters service provider, which hosts 196 other companies, it said.
An investigation by Bulgaria’s National Security Agency (SANS) gave a clean chit to Rinson Jose and his Norta Global. SANS had on Thursday launched an investigation into the role of any Bulgarian company in connection with the exploding pagers after the Telex report.
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