Bulgaria Prosecution: No Motive in Ethnic Turkish Politician Suicide

Bulgaria prosecutors have completed a comprehensive investigation into the death of Ahmed Emin, and have found no evidence of foul play.

Alexander Nalbantov, head of the Sofia Regional Prosecutor’s Office has announced on Tuesday that the three prosecutors appointed to the investigation had thoroughly carried out all the required legal procedures.

They had concluded, after a full analysis, that there was no evidence to support the suggestion that Emin might have been pushed to commit suicide.

There was no evidence to suggest a murder had been committed, and no motive for suicide had been uncovered.

Nalbantov stated that the investigation had incorporated ballistic and medical expertise.

Swabs had been taken from the hand of the only person to have been alone with the dead man, Nalabntov confirmed – a reference to the presence of Ahmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party DPS.

Ahmed Emin was one of the major figures of Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) and Chief of Staff of the DPS leader, Ahmed Dogan.

His body was found on the afternoon of October 17, 2008 in the Boyana quarter of Sofia, in the notorious estate allegedly belonging to Dogan.

In mid-April 2009, the Prosecutor's Office in Sofia officially closed the investigation into his death, concluding that he committed suicide. They reopened the case in February, following remarks by PM Boris Borisov that there may have been "procedural mistakes" and "recklessness" in the previous investigation.

Suggestions that Emin had been involved as an agent in a plot to kill Ahmed Dogan were rejected in February by Svetlin Yovchev, Head of Bulgaria's National Security Agency (DANS).