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Last Updated: Nov 19, 2008 - 9:35:20 AM |
According to Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik, Dogan will be questioned
in relation to the interview Kerim Karaali, a former MRF official, gave
to private terrestrial broadcaster Nova Televisiya on November 14 2008.
Karaali had said that the MRF and Dogan had a business information
centre in the late 1990s, when the party was in opposition, that served
as a source of financing for the the MRF.
The centre helped business “get around” in Bulgaria. Karaali said that
the party had served as an intermediary in an oil deal between Russia's
Gazprom and Turkey. On November 17, Yordan Yordanov, who said that he
had headed the business centre from 1995 to 1999, told
Bulgarian-language Trud daily that the centre had served as the link
between the MRF and businesses, but denied it had been involved in the
Gazprom deal.
Dogan and the rest of the party leadership denied the accusations and
asked the authorities for a check. It seems that now this will happen,
according to Vassilev.
As an MP, Dogan has immunity from prosecution, which does not apply,
however, when authorities are launching a probe, not an official
investigation. Such a probe simply means gathering information, that
being the reason why Vassilev was confident there would be no problems
talking to Dogan and all the other people mentioned by Karaali. The
probe is supposed to end within 20 days, Vassilev said.
In other news, the other public accusation against Dogan's party,
coming from the right-wing party in opposition the Democrats for a
Strong Bulgaria (DSB), was firmly denied by current and former Interior
Ministers.
DSB has been accusing the MRF of corruption, claiming that police has
started an investigation on the issue in 2006, under the code-name
“Liana”, which was put to a hold without any legal justification.
On November 18 2008 Interior Minister Mihail Mikov told private
broadcaster bTV that there was such an investigation, but it did not
refer to any MRF official. At the same time Mikov was on bTV, his
predecessor Roumen Petkov, who was the minister when the “Liana” probe
was put on hold, said the same thing.
According to the DSB, the MRF used to take between 20 to 30 per cent of
every project approved by the two ministries controlled by the MRF: the
Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs and the Agricutlure Ministry.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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