Thousands of Bulgarians have united in outrage from live footage showing delegates of the ethnic Turkish party DPS beating a man who attacked their leader Ahmed Dogan with a gas pistol.

The Facebook group demands for them to be legally prosecuted and fairly punished for kicking and hitting "insanely" the assailant and cursing in Turkish.  They have announced the launch of a petition for the above.

On Saturday, police in Bulgaria detained a man after he pointed a gun at Dogan  as he was delivering a speech in the capital Sofia. No shots were fired. The man was identified as Oktay Enimehmedov, a 25-year-old ethnic Turkish resident of the city of Burgas, with a previous criminal record for assault and theft.

It emerged Sunday that the man did not actually want to kill the former leader and now Honorary Chairman of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, but to scare him.

Also on Sunday, Sofia City Prosecutor, Nikolay Kokinov, announced Enimehmedov will be charged with grave hooliganism and death threat.

Kokinov further stated he did not see any need to hold the delegates responsible on grounds such situations and attempts to halt a criminal on the spot inevitably triggered damage, while the surprise had stunned everyone at the moment.

The footage shows about ten DPS members hitting with fists and kicking the young man, shouting "kill him," and "beat him." The footage also made international headlines.

The Chief of the Sofia police, Commissar Valeri Yordanov, said the legal actions were within the authority of the prosecutor's office, but noted that he thought the delegates must be held responsible for their actions.

At a special emergency press conference Sunday, the DPS leadership voiced outrage from the shift of focus regarding the murder attempt in presenting it as an individual act of a man who only wanted his moment of glory.

At the press conference, the newly-elected DPS leader, Lyutvi Mestan labeled the intentions of the investigation to probe delegates of the party's caucus for battery "cynical," stressing they were the ones to successfully fight off a potential killer and to save the life of their leader.

He underscored these delegates must be congratulated for their courage and for doing the job of the police who took an hour and a half  after the attack to arrive at the scene of the incident.

The party informed they will ask for an international probe in the incident they are convinced was an attempt for political murder. The incident will also be included as grounds for the non-confidence vote against the Cabinet to be tabled by DPS in upcoming days.

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