Bulgaria Prosecutor Denies, Then Admits Ethnic Turkish Leader Probe

“Somebody has made something up and now I have to explain why,” Boris Velchev commented on Thursday. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's senior prosecutor has denied reports of an investigation against the ethnic Turkish DPS party leader, Ahmed Dogan.

“Somebody has made something up and now I have to explain why,” Boris Velchev commented on Thursday.

The statement was in response to local media reports that Ahmed Dogan is being probed over his BGN 1,5 M commission as a consultant on 4 Bulgarian hydroelectricity projects for the previous three-way coalition cabinet. The unnamed sources said the probe involves money laundering.

In February 2009, Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) which was a member of the former government, took BGN 1,5 M as a consultant for the ‘Tsankov Kamak’, ‘Dospat’, ‘Gorna Arda’ and ‘Tundzha’ Dam projects.

The payment of the money was made to Dogan through a contract signed between him and the Institute of Mining, through ‘Minstroy Holding’ represented by Nikolay Valkanov.

According to the original contract, in January 2008 Dogan was meant to be paid BGN 1,9 M but a year later in February 2009 he was officially paid BGN 1,5 M.

Later on Thursday, Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor admitted that there was actually an investigation going on which could affect the DPS leader Ahmed Dogan.

He said the Prosecutor’s Office inspected evidence submitted by the Parliamentary Committee for fighting corruption over properties used by the leader of the ethnic Turkish party.

Velchev also explained that Dogan could not be investigated because of his MP immunity, which is why the investigation about the BGN 1.5 M fee that he allegedly received as a consultant of the scandalous hydro power plant project Tsankov Kamak and three other smaller similar projects was against “an unknown perpetrator.”

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