Bulgaria Anti-Corruption Body Fasttracks Dogan Property Probes

The Bulgarian Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Committee has decided on a two-week schedule for presentation of the results of investigations into Ahmed Dogan’s properties.

They have ruled at their Thursday meeting that, within that time, the Bulgarian National Revenues Agency (NRA) should hand over to the Anti-Corruption Commission all information resulting from the investigations conducted into the properties of Ahmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS).

The Anti-Corruption Commission had recently reactivated the files concerning the check of Dogan’s properties.

The cases relate to five properties belonging to Ahmed Dogan in the Boyana district of Sofia, in Rosenets Park, at his home village of Dranda, and two hotels in Devin and Ribaritsa.

It had been established that there were no declarations of income or insurance payments, said commission experts.

Eleonora Nikolova, a member of the expert team, pointed out that the previous government had had insufficient time, once their investigation had begun, to establish the identities of the “nominal owners” of the properties.

There was a need to request evidence of how such properties had been acquired, according to her, as they had also been investigated by the Prosecutor’s office.

In addition to these checks on property, all the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that Dogan has managed or participated in should be inspected, Yane Yanev, the Commission Chair, decided. He added that, up to now, there had been no such investigation.

Given that the NRA had not yet presented all its information relating to the investigations, there was a definite need for someone to assume responsibility, he stated. The Anti-Corruption Commission therefore assigned to the Prosecutor’s Office the duty of tracking the movement of all the files and investigations related to this case.

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