Four months since he disappeared without trace, Bulgarian lorry driver Zhivko Roussev, from Gulubovo, has been found inside an Iranian jail on death row. He was caught ferrying 135kg of heroin.

The news was confirmed by the Foreign Ministry, which formed an emergency task force late on January 27 to evaluate the situation. A spokesman for the ministry told 24 Chasa that "a Bulgarian citizen is under investigation for drug trafficking. The expected sentence is the death penalty. The ministry is working on the case after we were informed by the Iranian authorities".

The Bulgarian driver was caught by police in the north-west town of Tabriz in September 2008. All along his daughter had reckoned that he had gone to Armenia to be with a girlfriend. His employer, a Bulgarian company, initially did not disclose any information but eventually they had declared the man as missing. Eventually it transpired that the 55-year-old man, Zhivko Stefanov Roussev, hadbeen arrested after police found a hidden compartment in his lorry with 135kg of heroin.

Iranian authorities have informed the Bulgarian ambassador to Tehran that, in accordance with local law, anyone caught with more than 100g of heroin faces the gallows, regardless of nationality.

The Bulgarian company has made no attempt to intervene, either with the Iranian authorities, or to contact the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. The case will be re-examined during a visit by the Iranian deputy foreign minister who is arriving in Sofia on February 2.

In 2008, 230 people in Iran were executed, 317 in 2007. Murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by hanging.