Bulgaria Ex-Minister Released on Bail for Car-Theft Ransom

Bulgaria's former Deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev, who was arrested earlier this month on suspicions of being an intermediary in a car theft scheme, has been released on bail of BGN 5 000.

Sofia City Court came up with this decision on Friday, saying Chaushev is unlikely to influence the investigation and there is no need for him to remain in detention. Chaushev is expected to be released on Saturday.

The ruling of the court is final and is not subject to appeal.

The court sitting took place behind closed doors because special surveillance devices were used in the investigation of the case.

Chaushev was arrested on March 9 by the Bulgarian police in his capacity as an intermediary in the payment of a ransom for a stolen jeep belonging to a Turkish citizen.

The car was without insurance and was stolen on February 19 in Sofia. It costs about EUR 100 000. The Turkish owner of the car told the police he contacted Feim Chaushev asking him for help. Several days later Chaushev called him back and told him that the car can be retrieved if EUR 25 000 were paid to the theives.

Back in 2008, Chaushev, who is an ethnic Turk, had to resign as a Deputy Foreign Minister when it was revealed that he had business relations under a different name, Petar Chaushev.

Chaushev was using a double identity that he "inherited" from the so called Revival Process – the campaign of the communist regime in the late 1980s to force Bulgarian Muslims to take up Slavic Christian names.

He resigned in April 2008 after the scandal blew wide open. As a Deputy Foreign Minister he was actively involved in the talks for the release of the Bulgarian medics sentenced in Libya by the Gaddafi dictatorship for allegedly infecting Libyan children with HIV.

Chaushev is also known to have been a collaborator of the former communist secret police State Security (DS).

He was a member of the Stanishev Cabinet from the quota of the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms).

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