Former Bulgaria Deputy Interior Minister Charged with Bribery

Former Bulgarian Deputy Interior Minister, Raif Mustafa, was officially charged with bribery Wednesday.

Mustafa received the charge after being interrogated for over an hour at the Sofia Investigative Services and was released on a BGN 10 000 bail.

If proven guilty the former Deputy Interior Minister faces up to 10 years behind bars and up to BGN 15 000 in fines.

Upon leaving the building where he was interrogated, Mustafa declined to respond to media questions.

On June 13, Raif Mustafa handed in his resignation over publications that link him to a corruption scandal.

Mustafa, who is a MP for the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), stated in an official press release that he did not want to harm his party, the Interior Ministry and the Cabinet, who had put a lot of faith in him.

Mustafa denies any involvement in corruption schemes and said that he was not clear about what corruption scandal the publications suggested he was involved in. It is alleged however that Mustafa is linked to the scandal that saw Bulgaria's National Agency for State Security (DANS) arrest a business owner while attempting to pay a bribe to a high ranking State employee on June 11.

Rosen Marinov, owner of the "Auto Engineering" company, was arrested Thursday during a raid of his office in Sofia while, allegedly, offering a bribe of BGN 100 000 to the Director of Bulgaria's Fishing Agency.

The State Employee refused to take the money. Marinov, who is behind bars on permanent detention, pending a trial, denies offering the bribe.

Interior Minister, Mihail Mikov, commented on the resignation as a right move and thanked Mustafa for his work with the Interior Ministry.

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