Reuters reported that Bulgaria was negotiating accepting former Guantanamo captives in December 2009. On May 19, 2010, historian
Andy Worthington, author of
The Guantanamo Files, reported that the Syrian transferred to
Bulgaria was Maasoum. Worthington was told by local journalists that Maasoum's family had been allowed to join him in Bulgaria. Worthington's conclusion was that Maasoum and three other Syrians captured with him were probably told their interrogators the truth about being in Afghanistan as
economic migrants, not jihadists. Local reporters asserted that Maasoum said that he had gone to
Afghanistan to find a wife, that he was not a fighter, and that his detention was due to being mistaken for another man, named
Bilal.
Balkan Insight quoted
Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who said that Bulgaria wanted to accept a former captive who was a married man, under 40, who had not been a trouble-maker while in detention. In December 2010,
Der Spiegel reported that formerly secret diplomatic cables, published by whistleblower organization
WikiLeaks, revealed details of Bulgaria's negotiations with the US, over accepting former Guantanamo captives. They reported that, in return for granting refugee status to two former captives the USA would lift the restriction that visitors from Bulgaria would require a
travel visa. ==References==